The Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB's) legal advisors have informed its top officials that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) last year for five bilateral series was legally binding.
A reliable source in PCB said that based on the advice given by its legal team, the PCB was considering filing for compensation from the BCCI for its failure to play a India-Pakistan series in December, IBN Live reported.
PCB and BCCI signed an MoU in 2014 under which the two countries agreed to play six series against each other in eight years between 2015 and 2023.
The MoU raised questions on how could the BCCI sign a MoU considering the state of affairs between the countries. The former BCCI leader Narayanaswami Srinivasan agreed to sign the MoU when the PCB offered it for an exchange of their vote for International Cricket Council's (ICC's) restructuring.
The MoU also mentioned that in case the BCCI fails to play the series, the PCB can sue them for an amount ranging between $75 million and $100 million.
The PCB and BCCI in November meeting had agreed upon Sri Lanka as the neutral venue for the December series. The PCB refused BCCI's offer to play the series in India and the BCCI refused to play in the United Arab Emirates. However, the BCCI didn't get clearance from its government to play the series.
As the BCCI failed to play the bilateral series in December 2015, the PCB's legal team studied the MoU carefully and said it was a legally binding contract and compensation aspect could not be ruled out.
The PCB will have a discussion with ICC about the cancellation of the series and BCCI might have to pay a huge compensation. The ICC Board meeting will be held next month in Dubai.
The PCB's chairman Shaharyar M. Khan said that India has violated the MoU, for which the PCB can go in court against them, according to Nation.
But a reliable source said that Shaharyar and the head of the executive committee Najam Sethi were actually unwilling to go ahead with the compensation claim as they felt that the BCCI had shown willingness to play the series in December.
Shaharyar in particular believes that BCCI President Shashank Manohar was sincere in wanting restoration of bilateral ties and had himself suggested the short limited over series in Sri Lanka.
According to Sportskeeda, the PCB is hoping that BCCI would agree for bilateral play in a short series in England.
The source said that India might agree to play a short series sometime in June in England to keep the compensation claim plan on hold.
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