ACC says PCB chief’s allegations baseless; The cricket calendar was sent on 22 December
The Asian Cricket Council (ACC), while defending its president Jay Shah regarding the cricket calendar for the next two years, termed the allegations of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi as baseless. Shah, secretary of the Board of Cricket in India and president of the ACC, shared the two-year event calendar (ACC) on Twitter on Thursday. Sethi then alleged that no information was given to the PCB before sharing the ACC’s schedule.
Reacting strongly to this, he tweeted, “Thank you Jay Shah for unilaterally releasing the new ACC structure and calendar 2023-24, especially for the Asia Cup 2023 which Pakistan is hosting. When you are deciding everything by yourself, you can also go through our PSL 2023 Structure and Calendar. Its response is awaited. ACC said in its statement released on Friday that PCB along with other member countries were informed about the schedule on December 22 (2022) itself but no response from their (PCB) side didn `t come. As per the schedule announced by Shah, the Asia Cup is to be played in ODI format in September 2023 but does not mention the host country.
As BCCI secretary, Shah has already said (October 2022) that India will not tour Pakistan for this tournament. Responding to Sethi’s allegations, the ACC on Friday said, “It has come to our notice that PCB Chairman Najam Sethi has commented on the finalization and announcement of the calendar by the ACC President (Shah) taking a unilateral decision.” The ACC would like to clarify that it has followed the established due process in this matter.” The ACC also shared a ‘timeline’ with the media in this statement which implies that the PCB chairman is lying.
It said, “The calendar was approved by its Development Committee and Finance and Marketing Committee in a meeting held on 13 December 2022. The calendar was communicated to all participating members, including the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), through an e-mail on 22 December 2022. And so the program was publicly announced. However, responses were received from some member boards. No comments or suggestions for amendments were received from PCB. As such, the comments made by Sethi on social media platforms are baseless and are strongly denied by ACC.
