DUBAI: India and Pakistan have their battle lines drawn once again not just on the field on Wednesday but also off the field as both the country’s cricket boards are gearing up to argue their respective points of view in a legal dispute at the ICC’s headquarters in the city from 1-3 October.
The BCCI has hired a Dubai-based law firm and a British lawyer to fight its case at next month’s ICC hearing on the compensation claim filed by the PCB.
“The BCCI has hired Dubai-based law firm Herbert Smith Freehills along with British Lawyer QC Ian Mills to represent us at the Dispute Resolution Committee hearing.
“Since the case is happening in Dubai, we needed a Dubai-based law firm. Also, the ICC follows British law so, QC Ian Mills is on board. We will fight this case till finish,” a senior BCCI official said on Tuesday.
BCCI’s officially contracted law firm, Cyril Amarchand will be providing the board with back-end assistance.
The BCCI held a meeting with its legal team in Dubai which was attended by acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and CEO Rahul Johri.
Since a long time, the Pakistan Cricket Board has accused the BCCI of violating an agreement that both the parties had signed under N Srinivasan’s regime in April 2014. It had guaranteed that seven bilateral series were to be played between the arch-rivals between November 2014 and December 22 and four of those were to be hosted by Pakistan. These were also added in the ICC’s previous Future Tours Programme (FTP).
However, due to rising political tensions between the two nations, cricket between the two countries has now only been restricted to events such as the World Cup, Champions Trophy or the Asia Cup that too in neutral countries. Due to this, the PCB has claimed losses of nearly $70 million and approached the ICC’s disputes resolution committee for getting a fair shot at gaining compensation which the BCCI has refused to give voluntarily.
The ICC panel will be headed by Michael Beloff QC, an English barrister. World cricket’s governing body had announced in April that Jan Paulsson and Dr Annabelle Bennett AO, SC will be its other two members.
Cricbuzz reports that the PCB has sought Paulsson’s services to fight their case since he is renowned for being a top scholar and practitioner in international arbitration.
As for Mills, he is reputed for specializing in handling disputes in various aspects of sports related to individuals, teams, governance, event management and broadcasting for example. He played a crucial role in former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria being banned for life in 2012 over match-fixing allegations in county cricket.
The reason why there will be law experts from the UK is that as per the ICC’s constitution, such disputes are to be settled under British law even though the case will be fought in Dubai.
