KARACHI - At a time when emotions are running high and there is call for a strong retaliatory move from Pakistan after Bangladesh reneged on its promise to send team here former PCB CEO Arif Ali Khan Abbasi had advised that instead of behaving like Dhaka, Pakistan should play cool, show maturity and fulfill the commitment it had made to send Pakistani players to the Bangladesh Premier League.
There would be no difference between Pakistan and Bangladesh if Pakistan refused to send players for the BPL and descend to the level of their BCB which had refused to fulfil a commitment, said Arif Abbasi in an interview with TheNation here.
Arif Ali Khan Abbasi who had learnt a few lessons of the art of diplomacy from his father who had served as an ambassador in Switzerland and elsewhere said, it may sounded out of tune and odd when the atmosphere was charged and cricket lovers feel hurt, to talk against the general feeling but added Pakistan should stick to its commitment to show that promises at international level were made to be kept and not to be broken.
Bangladesh by refusing to complete its commitment had done nothing but only lowered its image and let itself down in the eyes of international cricket which demand that once a promise was made it had to be kept unless something extraordinary happened. Northing much had changed in last six months when Bangladesh promised to send the team.
He said Bangladesh had made international history when it refused to send the team on the court orders. That was some thing extraordinary never heard of in international sports or in cricket. He said he always had his doubts about Bangladesh sending its team when the present government was there. Who could forget the behaviour of some of the top political leaders of that country when Pakistan won the final at Dhaka against the host in Asia Cup and the comments they made.
The cricket establishment in Lahore, he said, did not open its eyes to what happened in Dhaka a few months back and surprisingly insisted and persuaded to the level of begging Bangladesh to send the team to play just two or three ultra short versions of cricket.
Bangladesh did what it did even after getting support from Pakistan for its candidate in the ICC. Pakistan support he guessed was conditional but cricket administrators in Dhaka did not uphold even that commitment either. He said he would have preferred inviting Zimbabwe instead of Bangladesh.
He said he also had reservation about PCB’s use of expression “ inappropriate” in reaction to the announcement of BCB for not sending team for now to Pakistan. There was no need to react or talk about, he said he would have just kept quite and let the history judge the event. Had media approached him if he was with the PCB to comment on the issue he said he would have said he had nothing to say.
He did not believe the incident would damage Pakistan BD relations on a long term basis but much would depend how Bangladesh Cricket Board behaved in future, he added.