ACC slams Najam Sethi after PCB chief's dig at Jay Shah for announcing cricket calendar for 2023 & 2024

On Thursday (January 05), Asian Cricket Council chief, and BCCI Secretary, Jay Shah announced the cricketing calendar for 2023 and 2024. In a tweet, he wrote, "Presenting the @ACCMedia1 pathway structure & cricket calendars for 2023 & 2024! This signals our unparalleled efforts & passion to take this game to new heights. With cricketers across countries gearing up for spectacular performances, it promises to be a good time for cricket."

However, Shah's announcement didn't please Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi. He, thus, tooka dig at ACC chief for 'for unilaterally presenting ACC structure and calendars 2023-24' and wrote in response, "Thank you Jay Shah for unilaterally presenting ACC structure and calendars 2023-24 especially relating to Asia Cup 2023 for which Pakistan is the event host. While you are at it, you might as well present structure and calendar of our PSL 2023! A swift response will be appreciated."

The ACC, in a statement, has nowcalledSethi's claims baseless and revealed that they had already emailedthe PCBabout the calendar of Asian cricket on December 22. "It has come to our knowledge that PCB Chairman Mr. Najam Sethi has made a comment on the ACC President unilaterally taking the decision on finalising the calendar and announcing the same. The ACC wants to clarify that it has followed established due process. The calendar was approved by its Development Committee and Finance & Marketing Committee in a meeting held on December 13th, 2022," the ACC said.

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The statement further added, "The calendar was then communicated to all the participating members individually, including the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), via an email dated December 22nd, 2022. While responses were received from certain Member Boards, no comments or suggested modifications were received from PCB. In view of the above, Mr. Sethi’s comments on a social media platform are baseless and are vehemently denied by the ACC."

It will be interesting to see if Najam Sethi responds to ACC's statement. After slamming Jay Shah, he was raised questions on the BCCI regarding the Asia Cup and ODI World Cup during a conversation with Sports Tak.

As Jay Shah had confirmed that Asia Cup won't happen in India as Team India won't play Pakistan on their home soil, Pakistan had threatened to pull out of this year's ODI WC. Regarding all this and the 2025 Champions Trophy, also to be held in Pakistan, Sethi respondes strongly.

'What type of standards are these?'

Sethi said, "If you won't come to Pakistan and then say come to India. What type of standards are these? I believe that politics should be kept far aside. BCCI is an independent board but ours (PCB) is linked to the government. So definitely we have to take many permissions from the government but the BCCI considers itself as an independent and private unit then such type of politics isn't necessary." He stated, "What is neutral venue? Why should we host our tournament in a neutral country? Let's play the 2023 World Cup match between India and Pakistan at a neutral venue in Australia then."

Sethi further opined, "Earlier also Mr Jay Shah gave a statement in which my predecessor Mr Ramiz Raja was not happy with that and expressed disappointment. He announced before that we (India) won't play against Pakistan in Pakistan." He added, "So the thing is on one side you want Pakistan to come and play the World Cup (2023) in India. On the other end, you say we don't want to go to Pakistan to play the Asia Cup. Tomorrow when the Champions Trophy will be played in Pakistan, won't you play that as well?."