PCB chairman Ramiz Raja's ambitious proposal of conducting a four-nation tourney comprising India, Australia, England under the aegis of the ICC was unanimously rejected by the all-powerful board even though there was a projected revenue of USD 750 million for five years.
"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, organizing four-nation every year would have in any case devalued ICC's own marquee events," a board member said.
Another sensitive issue which board members are talking in hushed tones is whether Raja will remain PCB chairman for long after Imran Khan was removed from Prime Minister's position.
PCB chairman is a political appointee as Pakistan PMs are always Patron-in-chief of the board. Hence Raja, an appointee of Imran Khan, might be forced to tender his resignation in current political climate.
The BCCI was always clear in its stand that it won't play four-nations with its calender choc-a-bloc and a lot of bilateral commitments that need to be honoured. On top of that is player's workload and mental health.
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 board meeting
