Asian Cricket Council 'vehemently' denies PCB chief Sethi's allegation on Jay Shah

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) dismissed PCB chairman Najam Sethi's claims of ACC president Jay Shah 'unilaterally' deciding the council cricketing calendar for the next two years as 'baseless'. In a strongly-worded response to the allegations, The ACC, on Friday, said the structure released by Jay Shah on Thursday, was "approved" in a meeting held on 13 December.

"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 established due process. The calendar was approved by its Development Committee and Finance & Marketing Committee in a meeting held on December 13th, 2022," ACC said in a statement.

ACC's statement came after Sethi took multiple digs at Jay Shah. 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 structure & calendar of our PSL 2023! A swift response will be appreciated," he quote-tweeted Shah, who is also the secretary of the BCCI.

The ACC statement further added that all respective boards including the Pakistan Cricket Board were communicated about the proposed structure and calendar. While all boards responded to the email, there was no response from the PCB, nor were there any requests for modifications to it.

"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," the statement read.

This is not the first time the BCCI and PCB have been at loggerheads regarding the Asia Cup. It all started when Jay Shah last year announced that the tournament might be shifted to a neutral venue. Ramiz Raja, who was the PCB chief then, threatened to pull out of the ODI World Cup if India don't come to play the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

The Asia Cup 2023 will be a six-team affair involving India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and a qualifier team.

Sri Lanka are the defending Asia Cup champions in the UAE after they beat Pakistan in the final. The tournament was played in T20 format because of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.

With India are set to host the ODI World Cup later this year and the focus of all the participating teams being on the 50-over format, this year's Asia Cup will be held in that format.

It is understood that India wants the tournament to be shifted to UAE due to existing complex socio-political scenario between cross-border nations but Pakistan's argument has been if Australia, England and New Zealand can come and play without fear of security, why would they host an event in a neutral country.BCCI secretary and ACC president Jay Shah, while releasing the calendar for the next two years, said the schedule "signals our unparalleled efforts and passion to take this game to new heights.