Punjab board threatens to withdraw Mohali

Just two days before the Champions Trophy kicks off at Mohali, the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) has said it will not sign the Host Venue Agreement with the International Cricket Council (ICC) unless given definite assurance of compensation for losses incurred. Mohali will host five matches - Saturday's qualifying fixture between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, three league games, and a semi-final - but Inderjit Singh Bindra, the PCA president, has warned that unless the ICC agreed to his association's terms and conditions the matches would have to played elsewhere.

According to Bindra, the PCA would lose approximately US$197,000 for each match since the television and in-stadia rights were held by the ICC. "It is not possible for us to bear such heavy losses. Most of the rights are with them, the only thing we have is the ticket money," he told reporters. "As of now, the match [on Saturday] will go on. Since the ICC is going ahead with the match, this explicitly means that they have accepted our stand. The ICC wants us to make certain commitments which we are not ready to accept. We have made our points clear to them, but they have not accepted these conditions in writing."

The Host Venue Agreement states that 70% of the revenue from seats sold goes to the host venue, and the rest to the ICC. Bindra, however, was worried that the PCA would not be able to recover the costs spent on conducting the matches as all advertisement rights, including in-stadia and media rights, lie with the ICC.

Mohali has been chosen in accordance with the Indian board's rotation policy, but Bindra stated this had set the PCA back by a further $18, 600,000. "The Champions Trophy matches have been thrust upon us and we stand to suffer a huge loss because we lose an international match according to the BCCI's rotation system," Bindra said. "An ICC event would fetch us nothing."

Though he did not publicly explain the conditions, Bindra was clear in his ultimatum: "Either you accept [our conditions], or choose another venue".

The timing of the PCA's statement has raised eyebrows because all four Champions Trophy venues were named more than six months ago based on the fact that these stadiums had no contractual or hospitality conflicting with the ICC's commitments. An ICC spokesperson reacted with surprise: "We cannot comment on this at the moment aswe don't know exactly what the PCA's bone of contention is. All we know is that the PCA had agreed to fulfill its commitments when the ICC was looking for 'clean' venues."

In related news, the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) looks likely to receive $770,000 towards operational costs and security arrangements for the tournament. The Rajasthan government, which funded the setting up of floodlights, will be charging the RCA $548,000 for each of the six matches being held there.