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Picture Credit: BCCI

A BCCI official has slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over an ongoing controversy of Gibbs’ participation in the KPL and whether the new intended league is an official cricket or not. Yesterday, South African Cricketer Herschelle Gibbs criticized BCCI for threatening and preventing him to play the KPL. The official highlighted the role of Gibbs in a match-fixing saga of 2020.

BCCI official slams PCB over Gibbs issue

“While one can neither confirm nor deny the veracity of the statement the veracity of the statement made by a former player who has figured in a CBI investigation into match-fixing earlier, the PCB must understand that even if Gibbs’ statement is assumed to be true, the BCCI would be well within their rights to take decisions with respect to the cricketing ecosystem in India”, said the BCCI official.

The Indian Board official called the Pakistan board “confused”

A BCCI official also called PCB "confused". The official pointed that just as the decision to not allow a Pakistani origin player to participate in IPL cannot be understood as interference in the internal matter of an ICC member, if any decision is materialized to allow or disallow any player to participate in any matter relating to cricket within India should be purely an internal matter.

BCCI official questions whether KPL is official cricket or not?

Kashmir Premier League, which is reported to begin this year in early August will feature six teams and is being played in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The teams will include Rawlakot Hawks, Muzafarabad Tigers, Mirpur Royals, Kotli Lions, Bagh Stallions and Overseas Warriors, in which Gibbs is reported to play. The league will mark the presence of some retired cricket players, to which the BCCI official question whether the league is official or not.

“The PCB would do well to peruse the ICC’s classification of official cricket. In the eventuality that a retired player is participating as a player in a tournament, it would not quite be official cricket, and any permission granted would be moot. I am not really sure how they are reading this to mean what they are intending it to mean, but then the PCB’s positioning is always bemusing. They should allow cricket to entertain rather than their decision making”, said the official.