A series of four countries including India and Pakistan, will Rameez Raja's dream come true?
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Rameez Raja is set to propose a four-nation T20 series at the next ICC meeting, which will include teams from Pakistan, India, Australia and England and be held on an annual basis.
Since Rameez Raja became the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, his actions and statements have shown that he is extraordinarily serious about making Pakistan cricket stand out at the international level.
What is the idea of four national series?
According to the details given by Rameez Raja of this proposed four-nation T20 series, this series should be held every year.
To make it work, they are talking about registering a company that operates under the auspices of the ICC, which has its own chief executive and distributes the revenue of the series to all member countries.
In this regard, ICC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jeff Allardyce told the media on Thursday that there is currently no correspondence with the ICC's Rameez Raja (in this regard) on any idea or No conversation.
"Unless we get further details on what Rameez Raja is thinking on this issue, it is difficult to comment," he said.
Rameez Raja finds the presence of Pakistan and India the most attractive thing in this four-nation T20 series.
He said that apart from the two traditional Ashes teams, the traditional rivals Pakistan and India, the series will be of extraordinary interest to the fans.
Rameez Raja had also suggested the idea of this series in his tweet a few days ago. He thinks a series between three or four countries could be more interesting than a two-way T20 series.
Will India accept this proposal?Hello fans.Will propose to the ICC a Four Nations T20i Super Series involving Pak Ind Aus Eng to be played every year,to be hosted on rotation basis by these four. A separate revenue model with profits to be shared on percentage basis with all ICC members, think we have a winner.
— Ramiz Raja (@iramizraja) January 11, 2022
Any suggestion that mentions Pakistan-India cricket has always been the center of attention. The reason is that cricket fans living in any corner of the world want to see the cricket of these two countries.
The latest example of this is the Pakistan-India match in the recent T20 World Cup which was watched by a record number of people around the world.
Unfortunately, the strained relations between the two countries are the biggest obstacle in the way of bilateral cricket and the spectators are forced to watch these two teams compete only in ICC events.
The most surprising aspect of Rameez Raja's proposal for a four-nation T20 series is how this series will be possible.
Of course, Rameez Raja is well aware that holding any series involving India is not feasible in the present circumstances.
Speaking to BBC Urdu, Pradeep Magazine, a senior sports journalist in India, says that given the current relations between Pakistan and India, this series does not seem possible at present.
He does not think that the Indian government will agree to this because there are anti-Pakistan sentiments in India.
Pradeep Magazine says that it is true that two cricketers Rameez Raja and Soro Ganguly have the reins of Pakistan and India cricket boards and former Test cricketer Imran Khan also has a government in Pakistan. The beginning of the connection is not visible.
He said that Indian Cricket Board Secretary J Shah is the son of Indian Home Minister Amit Shah who is considered as one of the powerful politicians of Bharatiya Janata Party. Jay Shah's position in the BCCI is important.
Pradeep Magazine says that in the past we have seen cricket relations between the two countries suddenly restored.
''It may be the same in the future but it will only happen when the two governments agree on it because it is a matter beyond the cricket boards.''
Pakistan is not included in Ganguly's proposal
Rameez Raja is not the first person to come up with an event proposal with the participation of four teams.
In December 2019, Indian Cricket Board President Saurav Ganguly also came up with the idea of a four-team event, in which he named England and Australia along with India but did not include the name of the fourth team.
He said that he wants to hold a super series with cricket heavyweights from 2021 and wants the first event to be in India.
Soro Ganguly's proposal was not accepted at the time and was seen in the context of the Big Three, which aimed to isolate most of the cricketing nations.
Opponents of the proposal included former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif, who said that like the Big Three, the idea would fail because the larger countries wanted to isolate other member states.