Miandad sceptical about Indo-Pak bilateral agreement

Karachi: Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad has expressed serious doubts over claims made by the Najam Sethi-headed PCB that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the BCCI to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023.

"I don`t know what is the value of this MOU because the BCCI itself is in a state of uncertainty and no one is sure whether Srinivasan will remain in power any longer," Miandad said. "At the same time, the PCB which was headed by Sethi was also working on ad-hoc basis and their main job was to hold elections so what is the legality of any agreements they signed with other boards?" he questioned. The former captain pointed out that since the PCB announced the signing of the MOU there had not been a single statement from the BCCI about it. "This is strange because neither has any BCCI official reacted nor have they issued any release on this MOU," he added. Under the MOU, the PCB has said Pakistan will host India for a two-Test series at a neutral venue next year which would be followed by five other bilateral series three of which would be hosted by Pakistan and two by India. Sethi lost his Chairman`s position in the Board yesterday after the Islamabad High Court restored Zaka Ashraf as the head once again. Indications are that Miandad, who was close to Ashraf and had resigned after the government sacked Ashraf in February, is likely to make a strong comeback to the Board in an influential position. "I just want to see Pakistan cricket flourish...To me what is surprising is that the PCB set up which was supposed to work for just four months took so many decisions many of them long term ones," Miandad said. "How can a managing committee which has been given mandate to work for just four months and primarily hold elections of regions and in the board make high profile appointments and also sack over a 100 employees many of them low salaried individuals," he added. Miandad said he was happy to see that the courts had been restoring these employees and hoped that when Zaka Ashraf took charge he would also set things right. "Injustice was done with lower end employees I don`t think the board is in such a financial position where it can`t afford to pay a few lakh rupees to such employees. The move to once again disturb domestic cricket was also not required at this stage," he said.