Arrogant, because they have money: Imran Khan slams BCCI

Pakistan's World Cup-winning captain and former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) saying that it has become ‘arrogant’ and that India behaves like a ‘superpower’ in the cricketing world because of its ability to generate a ‘lot of funds’.

Calling the cricketing relationship between India and Pakistan an ‘unfortunate’ affair, Imran said "I find it strange that the Indian cricket board would take it out on the Pakistan cricket players (by not allowing them to feature in the IPL) and it just reeks of arrogance", while speaking to Times Radio, as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.

"It is unfortunate, the relationship between Pakistan and India. There is a lot of arrogance in the way India now behaves in the cricketing world as a superpower. Because of their ability to generate a lot of funds, a lot more than any other country, I think they almost dictate now as a sort of the arrogance of a superpower of who they should play and who they shouldn't," said Imran.

"If India doesn't allow Pakistan players (to play IPL) so be it. Pakistan should not worry about it," he added.

Pakistani players were part of the inaugural edition of IPL in 2008. However, the terror attacks in Mumbai later that year strained the relations between the two nations. India eventually banned the Pakistani players in the cash-rich T20 tournament.

Both the BCCI and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have been in a tussle over the scheduling of the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup for the past few weeks.

The 16th edition of the Indian Premier League began on Friday with a match between defending champions Gujarat Titans and four-time winners Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.