First snatching as many as fourteen world cup matches under the nose of Pakistan and relocating them to various cities in India and Sri Lanka; next the shifting of the World cup Secretariat from Islamabad to Mumbai - it became increasingly difficult for Pakistan to digest all these blows of humiliations. And now Pakistan has chosen to strike back and took to the legal path against ICC. It has not only challenged ICC’s decision of removing Pakistan from Cricket World Cup’s venue list, now through a court order seeks to stop ICC from transferring WC Secretariat from Islamabad to Mumbai. Monday’s important breaking news definitely included this one that a Pakistani court on Monday issued a stay order against the relocation of the World Cup 2011 headquarters Pakistan to India.
“The fact raised by the petitioner (PCB) needs consideration,” said the order. “The civil court of senior judge Mohammad Younis Anees issued a stay order against the relocation of the World Cup secretariat from Lahore to Mumbai until June 2, 2009,” confirmed Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi. “Since the (headquarters) is in the jurisdiction of Lahore, that's why the PCB filed the case in the civil court of Lahore,” Rizvi told The Associated Press.
It was confirmed by PCB that an ICC representative attended Monday's hearing. “The ICC President David Morgan requested PCB chairman Ijaz Butt not to have a one-sided decision against the ICC. The ICC representative requested for an adjournment of the case,” Rizvi told AFP. So what the ICC response against this so called protest from PCB against the ICC decisions? As expected, ICC made it clear that it would fight the case with full strength. “We don't believe there is any substance to the PCB's claim and we will vigorously defend this matter,” an ICC spokesman was quoted saying.
Last week, the ICC told the cricket news media that its intention was not to leave out PCB as a joint host; what it wanted was: the matches assigned to the PCB should be played outside Pakistan.
ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said: “We are naturally disappointed that the PCB has chosen to pursue its grievance with the ICC through legal channels but, having received correspondence from its lawyers, we have now responded. “We used our response to clarify inaccuracies and misunderstandings in the PCB’s claim, including confirmation of the fact that the matter relating to the World Cup 2011 was on the agenda of the meeting.”
“We also pointed out that the ICC Board agreed only that the matches should be moved away from Pakistan, not that the PCB should be removed from its position as a joint host of the event itself.” PCB however maintains that it was given no prior warning of the decision, taken at a meeting on April 17.
It is up to the court to decide which side has more logic in their claims; what is important is PCB has made it clear that it would carry on with its protests against ICC decision of stripping the country off its World Cup matches.
Given the situations in the country, where nearly 2,000 innocent people have been killed due to extremist attacks from Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants since July 2007, hosting such a big ticket event as World Cup cricket could have been detrimental for the nuclear-armed country itself. It is to be seen, who does it better in establishing their points - PCB or the ICC?
