India control international cricket now, no one can go against them – Pak PM Imran Khan

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said India controls international cricket and no one can go against them. He made the statement while speaking over New Zealand and England pulling out of Pakistan tours. Imran stated that no country would opt out of the tour of India because of the money involved.

While New Zealand left Pakistan due to security reasons, England refused to travel to Pakistan on account of the physical and mental well-being of players.

“England let itself down. I think that there is still this feeling in England that they do a great favour to play with countries like Pakistan. One of the reasons is that, obviously, the money,” Imran said in a conversation with Middle East Eye.

“Money is a big player now. For the players, as well as for the cricket boards. The money lies in India, so basically, India controls world cricket now. I mean, they do, whatever they say goes. No one would dare do that to India because they know that the sums involved, India can sort of produce much more money,” he added.

Earlier, Ramiz Raja, the chairman of PCB, spoke about the financial clout of the BCCI.

“Pakistan Cricket Board runs on 50% of ICC funding. ICC funding is received from their member boards. ICC’s 90% funding is received from India. In one way, India’s business houses are running the Pakistan cricket board. Tomorrow, if the Indian Prime Minister decides that we don’t want to fund Pakistan anymore, the PCB can collapse. 90% of ICC’s funding are driven by India,” Ramiz had said.