ICC Unanimously Rejects Ramiz Raja's 4-Nation Tournament Proposal Including India, Pakistan

The International Cricket Council (ICC), in their annual meeting, held in Dubai on Sunday, April 10, 2022, unanimously rejected the ambitious proposal of a four-nation T20I series tabled by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja.

As per Ramiz Raja’s proposal, a four-nation annual T20I series would be played featuring India, Pakistan, Australia, and England and it would be run by the ICC itself. His projections for the revenue were huge, given the presence of arch-rivals India and Pakistan playing each other regularly, as the two nations do not play bilateral cricket anymore and only clash in ICC and Asia Cup events.

As per the reports from PTI, Ramiz Raja’s proposal projected revenue of USD 750 million for the next five years, which was to be distributed amongst the members of the ICC.

ICC Do Not Want To Devalue Their Own Marquee Events; BCCI Wants To Honor Their Bilateral Agreements

However, the proposal was unanimously rejected by the ICC board members including the BCCI. The Indian board, BCCI was very clear from the start that it will not play in the four-nation tournament given that their international calendar was choc blocked and it had many bilateral commitments to honor.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, the ICC didn’t want to devalue their own marquee events as they have aimed for an ICC event every year going forward.

“In any case, ICC’s Financial and Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA) was against this proposal. As we know that the MPA (Members Participation Agreement) doesn’t allow any member nation to host more than tri-nation, organising four-nation every year would have in any case devalued ICC’s own marquee events,” a board member told PTI.

An issue that was discussed in hushed tones was whether Ramiz Raja will remain the PCB chief, especially after Imran Khan, who had appointed him in the position, was ousted as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

There were reports that ECB’s Tom Harrison was also independently interested in exploring ideas of a four-nation tourney but it’s now evident that nothing of that sort happened at the board meeting.

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