Aamir blasts Butt for mishandling World Cup issue

LAHORE: Former Test captain and Director National Cricket Academy (NCA) Aamir Sohail hit out hard at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ijaz Butt for having mishandled the issue of the 2011-World Cup matches with the ICC and resolving it after having gained nothing special.Aamir, who has recently resigned as Director NCA in protest of not having been given the authority to work independently, while talking to Dawn on Saturday, further said that the amount, which the PCB would be getting after resolving the issue is meagre and nothing in comparison to what they could have gained through a legal court battle prompted earlier by the conflict-like situation with the International game’s governing body. ‘The match hosting fees [Rs10.7 million], profit shares and participating fees are big incentives, which the ICC must give to the PCB in all circumstances. After all, what else did the PCB go into the legal fight for in the first place?’ Aamir asked.‘But I think the cases were filed just to get a share in the gate money and parking, which is peanuts actually. We could have even got that through a one-on-one negotiation with the ICC,’ Aamir pointed out.‘PCB’s share of the gate money and parking from 14 matches can roughly be around Rs80 to 90 million, which the ICC could offer through dialogue,’ he said.But he said that a lot of expenditures were carried out in order to serve the legal notice to the ICC to get back the 14 matches along with another case filed in the local court to get the central organising committee secretariat back to Lahore from Mumbai. But Aamir said that neither could the PCB succeed in getting back the secretariat nor could they regain the 14 allotted matches.‘If the legal fight was for the little gate money or parking amount then it was not a wise decision as it could be resolved amicably through negotiation anyway,’ he maintained.He said the former cricket board chairman including Lt Gen (retd.) Tauqir Zia should have been involved in talks with the other cricket boards in order to plead PCB’s case. But instead of taking the necessary diplomatic steps, the PCB tried to threaten the ICC with court proceedings. Saying so he informed that Tauqir Zia, too, was willing to carry out the diplomatic efforts.Aamir, who had not spoken to the press since resigning from the post of NCA’s director on July 21, further criticised the PCB for proposing Abu Dhabi and Dubai as alternate venues for the World Cup matches when the countries were not ready to visit Pakistan due to the security issue.‘How can the PCB propose Abu Dhabi and Dubai as alternate venues without even signing MoUs with the two Arabian states’ cricketing authorities?’ he asked.‘By proposing Abu Dhabi and Dubai as the alternate venues, the chairman, in fact, showed no confidence in the government, which appointed him the head of its cricket board, for being able to improve the security situation by 2011,’ he said.Suggesting that the best way for the PCB was to ask for time for itself in ensuring the countries of better security arrangements, Aamir said that he believed that the security situation in Pakistan was improving rapidly and things were well under control as compared to the time when the sad incident of the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team took place in Lahore on March 3. ‘Pakistan have to host its share of 14 matches in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi. The security situation in all these cities is improving day by day and things would hopefully be in a far better state by 2011,’ he hoped.‘The chairman could at least have proposed that while the ICC continued work on the alternative venues of Pakistans matches in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the PCB will also do the same in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi. Five months before the start of the mega event, a final security situation can help both the ICC and the PCB reach a perfect decision that is acceptable to both parties,’ he suggested.Although the PCB chairman at a press conference held on Friday did not disclose the exact amount they would get after settling the issue with the ICC, he did claim that the amount could range from over Rs1 billion to Rs1.5 billion. Pakistan were the co-hosts of the mega event with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but all the cricketing playing countries refused to play their World Cup matches here after the terrorist attacks on the Sri Lanka team as the ICC striped Pakistan of the hosting rights while also shifting the secretariat from Lahore to Mumbai.