PCB, foreign media deadlock continues - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The deadlock between the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and foreign media agencies continues as news agencies such as Reuters, AFP and AP have refused to sign the PCB's new media accreditation terms and conditions. All the international news houses have refused to cover the on going Pakistan-New Zealand Test series in protest. With the second Test slated to begin on Thursday, changes of reconciliation between the two sides appears slim, but the PCB said it has agreed to almost all the demands of the agencies. "We have made a number of changes, even though we didn't need to, but they have asked for more," The Daily Times quoted PCB media in-charge Nadeem Sarwar, as saying. "The other changes they are asking for require detailed legal input and we have to refer to our lawyers over them to see if they can be done," he added. The three Test series in New Zealand is actually a 'home' series for Pakistan, after it was shifted out of the country because of security concerns, so the process of media accreditation lies with the PCB. The PCB maintains that its policy is 'aligned' with that of the ICC, and that conditions were the same as those applied during the one-day series between both the sides played in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The problems are believed to be similar to the one news agencies and Cricket Australia faced recently.