The Pakistan Cricket Board is expecting an estimated income of US$ 1.8 to 2 million from the sale of title sponsorship and ground rights for its home series against Sri Lanka and England that it has been forced to play away in the United Arab Emirates. “The expected income from the sale of title sponsorship and ground rights for the series against England is around one to 1.1 million dollars while another 800 to 900,000 dollars were generated from the series against Sri Lanka last year,” reports quoting a source said. He said the income from the sale of title sponsorship and ground rights was apart from the income the board would generate from sale of television rights.
“The television rights income is guaranteed due to the long term contract with Ten Sports which runs into 2014,” one source said. “But the board bids away title and ground rights for each series. This time it sold the Sri Lanka and England series as a package deal,” the source said. He explained that while the PCB wanted to sell its title and ground rights as a package deal on long term basis it was unable to do this in recent times because of issues involving India. “They were series with India chalked up which didn’t materialize and obviously since a series against India guarantees much more earnings than other series that is why the board’s marketing department didn’t go for long term deals,” he said.
He pointed out that the PCB had signed a two year deal with Nimbus sports from 2006 to 2008 for ground rights but that was because at that time bilateral cricket ties with India were on. The source admitted that the PCB had to face loss of some revenues after being forced to play its home series at neutral venues.
PCB to gain $2m purse for series down under in UAE
