The decision to bring the main parties together to work towards a solution was made after an ICC board meeting on Friday that lasted less than 15 minutes. The focus of the meeting was to find a way to break the deadlock surrounding the eight-team tournament. A PCB team, led by chairman Mohsin Naqvi, was in Dubai for the meeting, though it was an online call for most boards.

A few other member boards will now sit down with the ICC management, PCB and BCCI to work towards a solution acceptable to all parties. There is a suggestion that negotiations have taken place on the matter over the last day or so, but they will continue on Friday and probably Saturday as well. Naqvi has publicly said he was open to the BCCI discussing any issues they have with traveling to Pakistan with him, an option he has now been presented with.

In all likelihood, any proposal will have to be run past the governments of both India and Pakistan before being submitted to the ICC board for approval; India were denied permission to travel to Pakistan by the Indian government and the PCB has repeatedly said, as a result, that any action they take must be approved by their government.

The ICC board, which consists of representatives from all 12 full member countries, had called Friday’s meeting with three options on the agenda for how the tournament would proceed:

The PCB has more or less stuck to its public stance of not wanting a hybrid model, although in the last few days it has been mentioned that it is subject to certain conditions – which could involve a similar reciprocal arrangement for future ICC- events in India where Pakistan may not now be allowed to travel. On Thursday morning, Naqvi did not outright rule out a hybrid model – as he had done in the past – but said only that any decision would have to be approved by the Pakistani government and would be in Pakistan’s best interest. A board director told Pakinomist: “The hybrid model is the only possible way out of this impasse.”

The tournament is set to begin in less than 90 days, on February 19. Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi are the venues lined up to host the games, but if a hybrid option is chosen, it would involve another venue outside of Pakistan. A match schedule for the tournament had been approved at the ICC board meetings in October this year, although the issue of India’s travel was always going to be an obstacle.

An official explanation was provided by a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday, which said “security concerns” meant India was unwilling to travel. “BCCI has issued a statement, so I will refer you to it,” the spokesperson said during a routine press briefing. “They have said that there are security issues there and hence the team is unlikely to go there. Please see the statement issued by the BCCI.”

The BCCI has not issued a public statement on the issue of their trip to Pakistan, nor has security been specifically highlighted as an issue. In fact, the BCCI has treated the decision to travel to Pakistan as a decision to be taken by the Indian government rather than the board.

Additional reporting by Firdose Moonda>