Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan the other day said he would request the International Cricket Council (ICC) to set up a special fund for Pakistan to compensate for the heavy revenue losses it bears due to the absence of international cricket in the country.
Shaharyar maintained the PCB had suffered millions of dollars revenues losses since no international cricket team toured Pakistan from March 2009 due to the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.
“We want to use this special fund to develop and promote cricket in Pakistan,” Shaharyar, who is scheduled to represent Pakistan at the annual ICC meetings from June 27 in Edinburgh, told Press Trust of India(PTI) prior to his departure for London.
“We will request the ICC and member countries to put aside a small percentage of its income from the ICC events for this special fund for Pakistan cricket,” he held.
Forced to organise its “home” series at neutral venues, mainly the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the PCB said that the UAE was not proving very cost effective for them.
In order to save money, the PCB wanted to hold its “home” series against the West Indies later this year in Sri Lanka, but it did not work out as the Island nation gets heavy rains at most of their main venues during the scheduled series in September to October.
“When we play a series in the UAE the costs are high and generation of revenues not good enough for us. As a result, we are losing revenues annually and that eats into our funds set aside for development purposes and for our affiliated regional associations,”Shaharyar clarified.
Due to financial issues, Pakistan was unable to arrange regular bilateral series for its U-19 and ‘A’ teams and this was affecting the development of the players, the PCB chief lamented.
Pakistan also does not have hosting rights for any ICC event until 2023 due to the security situation in the country.
The PCB chief, a former career diplomat, admitted that until the security situation improved in the country, it would not be in a position to convince any board to send its team or even host any ICC team or event.
“The security situation throughout the world is not stable but things are improving in Pakistan. But it is very difficult to say for certainty when we can host international teams at home. We do not want to take decisions in haste and regret it later,” Shaharyar concluded.
