Basit Ali, former Pakistan batsman revealed ‘the inside story’ of what happened in the ICC meeting. He claimed that former ICC chairman Shashank Manohar did not want IPL 2020 to be held.
Who to blame?
In his YouTube channel, former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali said that the part of media and some ex-cricketers blaming the Indian cricket board for convincing the International Cricket Council to postpone T20 World Cup 2020 to accommodate IPL 2020 is baseless. “There has been talk in social media and channels, even I had received calls but I refused to answer, that BCCI has put so much pressure that the World Cup got postponed and stopped the Asia Cup for the IPL to happen. Actually, people do not know the inside story of what was discussed in the ICC meeting.”
He further said that the postponement of the T20 World Cup was on the cards as Cricket Australia had refused to host the same due to pandemic. “It was already known that the T20 World Cup was never going to happen as Australia had already refused to hold it.” According to Basit Ali, the official postponement could have been done some time back but it was not done because of Shashank Manohar.
As per Basit Ali, Shashank Manohar was not a supporter of IPL 2020. Shashank Manohar did not want the league to be held this year and played some ‘delay tactics’ according to former middle-order batsman of Pakistan. “It was a clear tactic of Shashank Manohar (the ex-Chairman of the ICC), the World Cup should have been postponed 1-1.5 months back, I am sorry the Indian viewers might feel bad, he did not want the IPL to happen. That is my opinion, I have said this before also. He played the delay tactics.”
BCCI supported PCB in ICC meeting
Basit Ali further explained why this conspiracy theory making headlines against the Indian cricket board are wrong. In fact, it was the BCCI that gave nod to PCB’s objection of not holding this year’s T20 World Cup in February-March 2021. “In the meeting now, it was decided that the World Cup will not happen. There was a suggestion in the meeting that this World Cup that was postponed should be held in February-March 2021. PCB said that they would not agree because their PSL happens at the same time and the earnings from that is used in our domestic cricket. BCCI was the first to say that PCB (Ehsan Mani) was saying the correct thing and how they can withdraw their event which is scheduled in February-March.”
Basit Ali asked all to do a fact check before claiming anything and opined, “If BCCI had played a game to postpone the World Cup for the IPL, they would have allowed the World Cup in February-March but they opposed that because PSL will happen at that time. Do you have any answer for that?”
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