The International Cricket Council’s Dispute Panel has given their verdict in the PCB vs BCCI case where the Pakistan Cricket Board had claimed damages worth Rs 447 crore from their Indian counterparts for allegedly failing to honour a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral series.
The verdict? BCCI will be making no such payment.
"...the PCB's claim is dismissed. Costs are reserved," the ICC stated.
"The judgement is binding and non-appealable," it added.
The ICC's three-member dispute resolution committee was formed last year to look into the PCB's compensation claim. The hearing took place at the world body's headquarters here from October 1-3.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had demanded Rs 447 crore compensation after alleging that the BCCI didn't honour the MoU that required India to play six bilateral series between 2015 to 2023. The BCCI, on its part, maintained that the alleged MoU was not binding and was just an informal document between the two boards.
The Indian Board also said that bilateral cricket with Pakistan was subject to government clearance, which they had not received since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
CoA Chief Rai however said the board were not done and would now be filing a counter compensation case against the PCB to demand the cost of arbitration.
The issue goes back to 2014 when the erstwhile BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel signed a one-page document which BCCI always termed as the ''proposal letter'' to play six bilateral series between 2015 to 2023 on home-and-away basis.
The ICC dispute panel ruled that the document signed between the two Boards did not seem binding.
The first of the proposed series was planned in November 2015 in the UAE but BCCI didn't get permission from the government which is mandatory for any bilateral cricketing engagement with Pakistan.
The PCB's compensation claim was triggered by a loss of TV revenue for that particular series.
India's former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid was among those who were cross-examined during the dispute panel hearing. According to a senior BCCI official, he justified India's refusal to play bilateral cricket with Pakistan, citing security concerns.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)