Pakistan has urged the International Cricket Council to take harsh steps against member-countries defaulting on their playing commitments and make it compulsory for them to abide by its decisions in matters of dispute.

"I think the ICC should get stronger and must have a hold over the member countries," Pakistan Cricket Board chief Lt Gen Tauqir Zia told the Gulf News. "They (ICC) should help sort out problems between two countries," he said referring to India's reluctance to play against Pakistan.

Zia said ICC should work on lines of football governing body FIFA. "Why can't they (ICC) take a leaf out of FIFA's book? and use sanctions and isolations if necessary to make two member countries play each other. The ICC should meet both the Indian and Pakistan governments and force them to play each other," Zia said.

He refused to believe the reason offered by the Indian Government for not touring Sharjah for the tri-nation tournament. "The initial reports were clear that India had objections against playing Pakistan but after ICC Chief Malcolm Gray visited India it was changed to 'not playing at non-regular venues'," he stated. "There was no justification in that reason either," he claimed, stressing that in that case the ICC should insist that no country should play at the so- called non- regular venues.

Regarding resumption of India-Pakistan cricketing ties, Zia agreed that the BCCI was not to be blamed but insisted the ball was in India's court. "I would not like to comment on the politics but it is in the interest of both the countries that we continue sporting ties."

On his earlier statement that Pakistan would not tour India for the ICC Knock-Out Tournament next year, Zia said "My initial reaction was not to go but if our government so desires then we will have to go." He also pointed out that Pakistan's Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf believed that sports should be kept out of politics. "We toured India in 1999 basically to generate goodwill and our team received a tremendous reception in India," he said.

But Zia ruled out early resumption of matches against India, saying the meeting between officials from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to chalk out details of the Asian Test Championship scheduled for August- September this year could not be expected in the near future. "We (ACC) were supposed to meet there and finalise details but there's no point now to meet and decide. What can we finalise when we cannot execute anything," he said.

© PTI