I will fight for Pakistan’s corner in BCCI legal battle, says Ehsan Mani

PCB claims up to USD 70 million as the revenue compensation of two series that failed to take place - November 2014 and December 2015 - which were agreed to be played by the boards in 2014. The two pending series were officially slotted into the ICC's Future Tours Programme (FTP) with Pakistan as the hosts. However, the BCCI never agreed to play those series because of certain political circumstances. 

"Their own policy has been contradictory, as they are always ready to play in multi-nation tournaments like the Asia Cup and the World Cup but renege on bilateral arrangements. So I never understood their positions and the basis of their policy. Even when I was at the ICC, they used to threaten pulling out on ICC tournaments. I told them that I could suspend their membership but in my position here, I obviously can't do that. The ICC since than has been quite different, with India's influence far greater, but I will fight Pakistan's corner,” Mani said. 

“I have set my priorities to fix domestic cricket and make it stronger than ever because this is the place where cricketers come through. I met with the Patron and publicly expressed my wish to have fewer teams compete in domestic cricket to ensure greater quality. [Imran wanted] an Australian model but we instead have to invent a Pakistani model. We have different circumstances but in principle, it's only quality teams that should be playing first-class cricket.

"This won't happen overnight; we have to conduct a thorough review and consult with all stakeholders. We can not ignore departments who are the major contributors in our domestic structure. They are undoubtedly the major employees for our cricketers and we cannot keep them out of the loop. I am forming a management task force who will identify the problems and suggest how we can make the structure stronger. There are a lot of challenges but we have to empower the regional set-up,” he said.

“I have a major concern that too much power is accorded to the chairman, which isn't good practice. Nowhere in the world does this happen so we have to tweak the constitution. Ideally professional teams run on a professional basis. Whoever the chairman is, there is a system in which the importance of cricket should be enhanced and we will be running cricket to serve only one purpose: cricket and nothing else.

"The whole system should run only for cricketers and the importance of the chairman and board members will be toned down. So the intent is to take Pakistan to the next level by professionalising the system,” Mani concluded.