Published: Jul 23, 2020, 08:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Jul 23, 2020, 09:54 AM (IST)
With the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup being postponed, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has said that the blame for it lays on the doorstep of each cricket board and singling out BCCI as the sole beneficiary of the decision isn’t fair.
On Monday, ICC announced it’s cancelling T20 World Cup this year in wake of the coronavirus pandemic. With the Asia Cup also cancelled, the September-November window is now free and allows BCCI to conduct IPL which was originally slated to be held from March 29 this year.
Latif was responding to a discussion on the quality of cricket going down and the polarisation of the game on Geo Cricket.
“Different people were running cricket in our times. Today, the decisions are made keeping in mind the finances be it Pakistan, India or England. Asia Cup has already disappeared from the scene. All cricket boards are a party to the decision of two international events being cancelled. Cannot blame the BCCI alone,” Latif said.
He continued, “PCB said T20 World Cup cannot happen in February-March (because of Pakistan Super League) then West Indies said no (Caribbean Premier League), it’s all a mutually beneficial decision. All those boards who have their own franchise cricket leagues are involved in this.
“The T20 World Cup could have been organised in February-March but it would have affected PCB, it could have been organised in April-May but then BCCI would have been affected (IPL) and so on. A lot of reasons are behind that. Every board in ICC is benefiting from it.”
Latif, who played 37 Tests and 166 ODIs between 1992-2003, also said the decision to cancel Asia Cup wasn’t unilateral either.
“BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had already announced (Asia Cup will be cancelled before an official confirmation). He wouldn’t have said so unless other boards had given their consent. This was pre-planned decision,” he claimed.
