The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) clarified that its chief Najam Sethi never discussed the idea at the ICC Board meeting about the national team intending to play its ODI World Cup matches in Bangladesh. This comes after reports that Pakistan will possibly play their World Cup matches in Bangladesh instead of India surfaced.
Earlier, ICC had declined that any such discussions happened at the ICC forum and Bangladesh is not even in contention to host any World Cup match as BCCI had assured that visa won't be a problem for the Pakistan team, PTI reported.
The PCB also cleared the air about the discussion on"hybrid model" of the tournament was strictly about Asia Cup since India will not travel to Pakistan.
"Referring to the media talk on Thursday, Najam Sethi said he had briefed the media on the hybrid model he had presented to the ACC officials for the ACC Asia Cup to end the impasse that had been created following the BCCI's decision to not send its team to Pakistan.
"This proposal - to play India's matches at a neutral venue and the rest in Pakistan - is under discussions within the ACC," a PCB media release stated.
Sethi said that he was misquoted by a section of the media.
"At no stage during Thursday's media interaction, did I give any reference to the ICC or made any remarks on the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023, which is scheduled in October. This matter has not been mooted or discussed at any ICC forum so far," Sethi said.
The PCB through media release gave a rejoinder to one of its local English outlets.
"In this background, the PCB is disappointed that a leading English language newspaper has misquoted, misinterpreted, and misrepresented Sethi's comments and gave the impression that PCB's hybrid model was presented and discussed at the ICC, which is factually incorrect.
"At this stage, the PCB is only in discussions with the ACC over the hosting of the ACC Asia Cup and no discussions regarding the World Cup have taken place with the ICC."
However, PCB in its press release did mention that the concept of a 'hybrid model' could be discussed later.
"This is not to say that the hybrid model will not be advocated at the proper ICC forum at the right time," it stated in the end.
The Asia Cup was scheduled in September this year but BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who is also the ACC chairman, announced in October 2022 that India will not travel to Pakistan. In the first formal meeting between BCCI secretary Jay Shah and PCB chairman Najam Sethi held in Bahrain on February 4, the discussion regarding the venue of Asia Cup 2023 took place but the final decision was withheld
