Amidst a flurry of memes and jokes, finally one thing has become clear: the cricketing world successfully called Pakistan’s bluff. After pouting and posturing for a few days and threatening not to play India in the ongoing Men’s T20 World Cup and lobbying unsuccessfully with other cricketing nations, Pakistan finally capitulated and agreed to face India on a cricket field on February 15.

So, the official broadcaster JioStar, and cricket’s various governing bodies, including the International Cricket Council (ICC), can heave a sigh of relief. A high-octane India-Pakistan match will finally happen, keeping everybody happy, including advertisers and media firms.

However, Pakistan is making a virtue of this retreat. A PTI report from Karachi, quoting unnamed sources, stated that  the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has claimed ICC promised a few concessions for ending its boycott of the India game. But those concessions will only be announced after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup.

“Whatever concessions the PCB has got from the ICC on ending their boycott will only be made public after the end of T20 World Cup,” a PCB source told PTI yesterday.

The ICC, according to the PTI report from Karachi, has already announced that Bangladesh Cricket Board will not face any sanctions from the global body and will also be given an ICC event in the 2028-2031 cycle (preferably U19 Men’s World Cup).

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that the nation would boycott the T20 World Cup group league match against India in Colombo on February 15 in solidarity with Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), who were replaced after refusing to play their matches in India citing security reasons.

After hectic parleys and back-channel talks, which also included intervention from Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissinayake and the Bangladesh Cricket Board that requested Shahbaz Sharif to change their stance keeping broader interests in mind, the boycott did end on Monday night.

“The call from Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissinayake played a big part in ending the boycott as did a briefing from some top people in the government/establishment who have been closely following the developments,” another source informed.

The PCB has now also been given clearance to play India if both countries have to face off again in the latter stages of the World Cup.

Another source said that the (Pakistani) Prime Minister who is also patron in chief of the PCB was in fact briefed on what Pakistan could achieve if the government issued a notification for not playing against India.

“The ICC now has a clear understanding with Naqvi that no further details of the discussions that took place with PCB, Bangladesh Cricket Board and some other boards would be made public,” the source said.

While ICC in its statement on Monday confirmed that Bangladesh would not be sanctioned for their stance, it had no mention of what would PCB stand to gain from ending the impasse.

There have been speculations about Naqvi pushing for an increase in the share of revenues the PCB gets from the ICC but another insider confirmed this would only be after approval from the ICC board for the next financial cycle.

He said during discussions Naqvi had made the point that there was no reason for Pakistan and India not to play home and away matches in the ICC World Test Championship at neutral venues as they were already playing in other ICC white ball events.

However there remains a catch. Only the WTC final is a direct ICC event and all other series are bilaterals for which points are awarded.