We Want To Move Forward- Ramiz Raja Hopeful Of Holding India-Pakistan Matches On Consistent Basis

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja stated that he would be happy to put aside the politics between India and Pakistan and begin organising more international matches between the two teams as it would generate a lot of interest and revenue.

Poor diplomatic relations between the two countries have ensured that they only meet each other in ICC events. However, this is something that has hindered the sport as India-Pakistan is quite easily the biggest rivalry in the game.

Ramiz Raja proposes a ‘Super Series’ with India, Pakistan, Australia, England

Terming bilateral series as ‘tedious’, Ramiz insisted that a better idea would be to bring the two big rivalries in the game – India & Pakistan, Australia & England – and play a quadrangular tournament between them.

“I am not a big fan of bilateral T20 series as T20I cricket needs a new life amid the challenges around franchise cricket. Playing five bilateral T20Is is tedious, but if three or four nations play each other rather than bilateral series, that has massive potential in terms of generating revenue. It’s not like we need to create a parallel body like the Big Four, but it’s about generating interest and the income can go to the other boards too,” Ramiz mentioned.

“My view is that a new structure based on pooling and sharing of income should be formed. The idea is to register a company that works under the ICC and has a dedicated Chief Executive Officer regulating the entire financial model, with the income divided among all the members.”

“There are numerous rivalries like Ashes, Pakistan-India rivalry so it can’t go wrong when four T20 sides come and play each other. We need to whet the fans’ appetite as they are getting fatigued, and we need to create something outside the FTP,” Ramiz further said.

Although the idea seems quite attractive, it would setback others who aren’t involved as much. It is also similar to the Super League that was proposed in football and ended up receiving huge backlash from everybody involved.

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