Lt

Agha Akbar17-Feb-2002
Lt. GenZia
Photo CricInfo
India will not be visiting New Zealand if the latter declinesto come over to Pakistan for the rescheduled tour ofthe last winter in April. This was stated through one of thethree quite substantive resolutions the Asian Cricket Councilapproved unanimously after two days of meetings at Sharjah, andrevealed in a press briefing by the ACC president Lt. Gen.Tauqir Zia flanked by the BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya,Ehsan Mani and Zakir Hussain Syed.The resolutions indeed show that the Asian bloc has closedranks to take on the ICC on issues where it has the perceptionof being unfairly dealt with and pushed around. This solemnpromise to back each other on all issues of concern definitelyhas serious connotations, because the four-nation full-memberSouth Asian bloc has four votes and with the support of onemore, they could block all resolutions at the ICC ExecutiveBoard, where a clear majority is needed to force an issue.The meeting definitely was a triumph for Jagmohan Dalmiya, whohas been able to firmly rally the ACC and the Asian nationsbehind him to take on the ICC. It was indeed a master strokebecause apparently Pakistan, because of public and governmentpressure, did not want to go along with India. It, however,remains to be seen whether this display of Asian cohesionquite substantively changes the equation in terms of votingpatterns in the ICC Executive Board.Put Review Commission on hold:
The first of the three resolutions urges the ICC to halt theproceedings of the review commission set up to look into thesentences handed out by match referee Mike Denness during thesecond Test of the South Africa-India series, which is to meeton February 23. The ACC, says the resolution number one, was”deeply concerned over this dispute between the ICC and someof the member countries”.
JagmohanDalmiya
Photo AFP
Further, the ICC has been requested to put the issue fordeliberation before its Executive Board which meets on January15 in Cape Town. “We do not want a quarrel with the ICC, butwe do want that the concerns of the member countries belistened to”, said the ACC president, Tauqir Zia.Dalmiya, for his part, stated that his stance was principled,and he merely wanted, according to the initial agreement, anindependent body to be formed.Indo-Pak cricketing ties:
The second resolution was on the resumption of Indo-Pakcricketing ties. “The meeting has noted with concern thepresent non-existence of cricketing ties between India andPakistan. It was decided that concerted efforts be made forthe restoration of cricketing relations between these twocountries as soon as possible, since the resumption of tiesbetween India and Pakistan was crucial for the development ofthe game in Asia”, the resolution said.Tauqir Zia, the PCB president whose Board has suffered due tothe Indian intransigence regarding not only a return trip butalso not playing Pakistan anywhere, said that the ACC feltthat it was a political decision of the Indian government andthat the BCCI was trying to get it reverted. Dalmiyaconcurred, saying that he had met the Indian sports ministryofficials to make them realise that the issue is notrestricted to India and Pakistan but the whole continent’sdevelopment depended on it.Dalmiya, however, refused to comment on whether his exchangeswith the Indian Sports Ministry had drawn any positiveresponse.Though he would not say anything on the issue, but perhaps thePCB president was reassured by his Indian counterpart aboutthe possibility of a thaw in relations a few months down theroad.Compensatory Fund:
The third resolution requests the ICC to set up a special fundto provide compensation to countries which suffer financialloss due to cancellation of a scheduled visit approved by theICC. A supplementary decision in this regard, which reflectsthe Asian solidarity on the issue, was that in case a countrywithin or outside Asia fails to honour a commitment, otherthan for ‘reasons beyond the control of the cricket boards orforce majeur, the four Test-playing nations of the subcontinent would automatically refuse to visit or host thatparticular country’.Other than these three resolutions, the ACC meeting alsodecided to short list Kuala Lumpur and Dubai as the eventualvenue for the permanent ACC secretariat. It was also decidedthat the ACC would also have a Chief Executive Officer, whichwould be from Asia, preferably out of the four South AsianTest nations, said Tauqir Zia.Among other mundane decisions were, approving a $ 3 millionbudget for the year April 2002 March 2003 and recommend to theICC to allot the 2006 Under-19 World Cup to Bangladesh.