Pakistan Cricket Board has made it clear that their sole aim in the India match boycott standoff with the International Cricket Council was to gain Bangladesh “some respect”, and they benefited nothing from it.

Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB chairman, has spoken out for the first time since Pakistan decided to play the February 15 match in Colombo.

‘We didn’t keep any condition (in our negotiations) other than Bangladesh,” Naqvi told reporters in Peshawar on Tuesday. “Our only aim was to get Bangladesh some respect, to right the injustice that had been done to them.

“You’ve seen whatever Bangladesh wanted, it’s been accepted and that’s it ... We had no personal aim in this. They can say whatever they want but purely, our work was only related to Bangladesh. That is what the government took a decision on. And
when their demands were accepted and it was acknowledged that they suffered an injustice, then we have decided to play again.”

The Pakistan government said on February 1 that the team would not take the field against India for their group league game. However, after days of back-channel discussions and negotiations between the PCB, BCB and the ICC, the Pakistan government withdrew the boycott threat.

The ICC released a statement saying the BCB would not be sanctioned for its refusal to play their T20 World Cup matches in India.

U-turn

Asif Nazrul, the Bangladesh government’s sports adviser, has made an U-turn from his earlier stance, insisting that the decision to not take part in the T20 World Cup was made by the cricketers and the Bangladesh Cricket Board, and not by the government.