India vs Pakistan at T20 World Cup: ICC rejects PCB’s ‘3 demands’; what were those?

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has responded to the Pakistan Cricket Board’s three demands that they put forward during the concluded talks between the two board members in an attempt to overturn Pakistan’s boycott of India's game at the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026. Senior PCB officials hosted a three-way meeting on Sunday evening in Lahore, including two ICC representatives and also from the Bangladesh Cricket Board, all working on finding a middle ground over the talked-about India-Pakistan T20 WC game in Colombo on February 15.

A Telecom Asia report, also carried by several publications, claims that the PCB utilised this platform and a closed-door meeting with senior ICC officials, including ICC Deputy Chair Imran Khwaja, to express their three significant demands, while also echoing their reservations against BCCI’s influence on the ICC, and how it's impacting the cricket ecosystem.

What were PCB’s three demands?

Among all the demands (that the PCB officials kept ahead of the representatives from the apex body), the significant ones include resumption of bilateral ties with India, an increase in the revenue share and ensuring that no handshake episode ever happens again.

The latest reports also suggest that the ICC has indeed planned something surrounding a few of PCB’s passing demands, which included compensation for Bangladesh, a participation fee despite their exit and Pakistan’s hosting rights for future ICC events.

“ICC has nothing to offer to Bangladesh as compensation but to ensure it would get a full share from the ICC earnings,” The Dawn report stated.
Besides, the Dawn report also claims that Khwaja advised the PCB to either take the matter to ICC’s arbitration committee or raise it at the ICC board meeting, while urging the decision-makers to immediately end the India boycott talks, stressing that the logjam is doing no good to either cricket or its business.

PCB’s growing issues with BCCI’s influence

The Pakistan Cricket Board also raised several issues around BCCI’s growing influence with the ICC, stressing the politicisation of its matters. A PCB insider also claims that Pakistan is unhappy with BCCI’s role in shaping key ICC decisions.

The source close to the information also revealed the real reason behind Pakistan’s boycott of India's game at the T20 World Cup, which was ICC’s ‘biased decision’ towards Bangladesh’s exit from the showpiece event.

“The government of Pakistan wanted to show solidarity with Bangladesh. Therefore, as a protest, the national team was restricted from playing its match with India scheduled for February 15,” the source added.

Meanwhile, Mohsin Naqvi (PCB), Aminul Islam (BCB), ICC's Imran Khwaja and the Associate Members’ representative, Mubashir Usmani, did not issue a joint statement after the four-hour meeting, with the Pakistan government to take a final call on the India game standoff.