PCA yet to sign agreement with BCCI on Champions Trophy matches

Chandigarh, Oct 5 (UNI) Despite preparations having begun in full swing for the holding of the five Champions Trophy ties at the PCA Stadium in Mohali in Punjab, the Punjab Cricket Association and the BCCI are yet to sign an agreement required for the staging of the matches.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the BCCI had signed an agreement under the Participating Nation Agreement (PNA) and a similar agreement was to be signed between the staging state associations and the BCCI on behalf of the ICC.

''Considering some of the clauses unacceptable to the PCA when Mohali was selected as one of the four venues for the Champions Trophy, a delegation of the BCCI which included Inderjit Singh Bindra and Lalit Modi met the ICC officials and explained their associations' objections,'' PCA secretary M P Pandove said here today.

''The issues were sorted out in the meeting. However, we have not received any further communication from the ICC. In these circumstances, the PCA has not signed the agreement with the BCCI which is doing so on behalf of the ICC. But the things are going smoothly,'' Pandove said, while addressing a press conference at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium where Sri Lanka and Bangladesh played a warm up match against PCA President's XI.

Pandove, who is also joint secretary of the BCCI, said, ''We have objected to some of the hard clauses in the agreement. A BCCI delegation met the ICC officials and explained the position. Some of the clauses we agreed and ICC agreed to some clauses and agreed to resolve the dispute''. However, as no new agreement was sent, PCA did not sign the old agreement, he added. ''We are also going ahead and we have not received any objection from the ICC representatives who visited Mohali,'' he added.

Pandove said. ''The ICC clause that 70 per cent of the gate money would go to the staging association and 30 per cent will go to the ICC. It was not acceptable to us''.

He said ICC was categorically told that 100 per cent money collected from sale of tickets will remain with the PCA as that is the only source of income for the association from the five matches to be played in Mohali. The ICC agreed to make changes in this clause and in lieu the PCA offered 250 tickets of the hospitality area where food and other eatables would be served and 1100 tickets, without food for the sponsors, he said.

''If the requirements of the ICC are more, they can purchase tickets at the face value,'' he explained.

Other major irritant in the ICC terms and conditions was the corporate boxes which the PCA has generated through goodwill in years and the Ambuja Pavilion. ''The rights of the corporate boxes and Ambuja Pavilion will remain with the PCA during the ICC Trophy matches'', he added.

''There will be no change in our stand. The ICC wanted a clean stadium for the matches. The PCA and corporate houses and Ambuja have signed agreement and it is difficult to deviate from it'', the PCA secretary said with firmness..

''We have told the ICC authorities through BCCI that if the PCA conditions were not acceptable, the matches may be shifted from Mohali,'' he disclosed.

UNI