The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on Friday slammed the comments of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi who has publicly taunted ACC President Jay Shah over announcing the cricket schedule and pathways of the governing body for the 2023-24 calendar.
On Thursday, Shah, who is also the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released the cricketing calendar in Asia for 2023/24 as ACC President. "Presenting the @ACCMedia1 pathway structure & cricket calendars for 2023 & 2024!
This signals our unparalleled efforts & passion to take this game to new heights. With cricketers across countries gearing up for spectacular performances, it promises to be a good time for cricket," Shah said in a tweet.
Later in the evening, Sethi replied to Shah by saying, "Thank you Jay Shah for unilaterally presenting ACC structure & calendars 2023-24 especially relating to Asia Cup 2023 for which Pakistan is the event host.
While you are at it, you might as well present the structure & calendar of our PSL 2023! A swift response will be appreciated." Now, on Friday, the ACC said in an official statement that the PCB had been informed about these details via email on December 22, 2022, but no response had come from them.
Incidentally, on that day, Sethi had replaced Ramiz Raja as PCB Chairman. "It has come to our knowledge that PCB Chairman Mr Najam Sethi has made a comment on the ACC President unilaterally taking the decision on finalising the calendar and announcing the same."
The ACC wants to clarify that it has followed well established and due process. The calendar was approved by its Development Committee and Finance & Marketing Committee in a meeting held on December 13th, 2022," the statement read.
"The calendar was then communicated to all the participating members individually, including Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), via an email dated December 22nd, 2022. While responses were received from certain Member Boards, no comments or suggested modifications were received from PCB.
In view of the above, Mr Sethi's comments on a social media platform are baseless and are vehemently denied by the ACC," it added.