Pakistan, India need to create a cricket bond: Ramiz Raja

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja today said the 2023 ACC Cup in Pakistan will be a 50-over competition. He was talking to PCB digital following his return from Dubai, where he also met the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials.

“The ACC has agreed and approved that the 2023 event in Pakistan will be a 50-over competition and will be held in September. This aligns very nicely with the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, which will be held in October and November.

“We are looking forward to hosting this tournament in Pakistan and I am confident it will be a well-organised event because this is what the fans want.

“The ACC has also confirmed next year’s tournament in Sri Lanka will be played on a 20-over format and will be a prelude to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 to be held in Australia from 16 October to 13 November.”

On the ACC, Mr Ramiz Raja said: “The ACC was set-up to create a unified approach and collective stance so that we had one voice and if there was a situation, all stood together. I would like to see our relationship with other boards and the ACC to be strong so that if there is an issue, like we had with the withdrawal of a couple of sides, a strong and joint statement could come out from the ACC platform.

“My message at the ACC was that we should not forget this philosophy and I am optimistic there will be better outcomes in future.”

On his meeting with the BCCI officials, Mr Ramiz Raja said: “I met with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah on the sidelines of the ACC meetings. We need to create a cricketing bond, while I have also believed that politics should stay away from sport as much as possible and this has always been our stance.

“A lot of work needs to be done to revitalise Pakistan-India cricket but there needs to be some comfortable level between the two boards and then we can see how far we can go. So overall, we had a good discussion.”