Pakistan says attempts to marginalise it in new FTP

Pakistan believes there were attempts to marginalise it, and other countries, in the draft of the next six-year international cricket programme but the plan is being reworked with a promise from the ICC that its interests will be protected.

"Yes, there were attempts to marginalise us [in the next tour programme]," the PCB's chief operating officer Salim Altaf told AFP. "The ICC was due to approve the Future Tours Programme (FTP) by June 25 but has gone back to the table after our concerns. We hope our interests will be addressed, as the ICC has promised."

The ICC last week began chalking out an FTP that aims to provide a structured schedule of cricket for the ten member countries from 2012 to 2018. Teams have been wary of playing in Pakistan amid a wave of Taliban-linked attacks over two years, and in the past year the ICC moved the Champions Trophy 2008 out of Pakistan, after several teams refused to travel there, and stripped it of its World Cup matches after a deadly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March.

It is believed, however, that a number of sides, including South Africa, promised Pakistan that they would be willing to play them "anytime, anywhere [on neutral venues] and honour all their contractual commitments" in the next FTP. England, where Pakistan will next year play several off-shore Tests, has also been helpful; the recent meeting has seen the PCB attempt to repair relations with members of the ICC as well as the governing body itself.

However, board officials believe a "cartel" of the big four countries - Australia, South Africa, India and England - is building up, which will marginalise Pakistan and other, less profitable countries, raising concerns of a two-tiered cricket world of the haves and have-nots. This is one of the main objections that has been raised and is likely to now cause delays before the FTP is ratified.

"We have raised the issue with the ICC and said to them that there is a cartel building up of four countries and no cartel is ever a good thing," an official present at the meetings told Cricinfo. "They [the group of four] wanted to reduce the number of ICC events to two in four years also. The ICC is abdicating its responsibility here but they are realising it now at least."

It has also been learnt that there are no scheduled series between India and Pakistan in the FTP post-2012, indicating that relations between the BCCI and the PCB have yet to improve. The two boards have been close in recent years, but a change in administration within the PCB and a change in the political atmosphere between the two governments has changed that. The PCB's legal case against the ICC over the 2011 World Cup - set to continue now in the disputes resolution committee under Michael Beloff - has further fractured the relationship. The BCCI, say officials, has pointed to the uncertain political ties between the two countries as a reason for not scheduling any tours.