—Is Sethi really the best option for PCB chairmanship?
LAHORE: The last and final meeting of the current Board of Governors (BOG) of the PCB is scheduled to be held on Friday, 28 July, 2017 at Lahore.
But a pertinent issue needs to be addressed before the end of the tenure of current PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan, with respect to the unlawful payments made to franchises from the income generated in the PSL and the neglect of PCB’s own interests.
The PSL management paid the entire income of PSL-1 (about $4.5 million) from the following three income sources clubbed as pool money: gate money, sponsorship and media rights.
However, a question arises, that if this whole pool money amount of about $4.5 million or about Rs 45 crore was to be divided among all the stake holders, why only 5 franchises were considered the stake holders and PCB not considered one? Originally, PCB contributed $5.0 million as seed money whereas franchises, individually on average, just contributed only $1.86 million to start the PSL project. The total reported amount of five franchises collected by the PSL was $9.3 million or Rs 93 crore.
But why then was PCB only given Rs 4 crore as pre-tax profit and thrown out from its major share of income, from the pool money of about Rs 45 crore?
Here, it is extremely important repeat, how PCB’s original seed money share ($5.0 million) was manipulatively mentioned as ‘very little’, (to justify payment of entire 100% pool money to the franchises), at the website of the PCB: “PCB invested very little as seed money in the project while the Franchisees invested $9.3m in the form of franchise fee to PCB.”
Additionally, PCB paid $2.2 million or about Rs.22 crore as expenses paid to the franchises which were ‘pledged during marketing presentations’.
Here, two extremely serious financial and audit violations were committed in payment of $2.2 million or about Rs.22 crore to the five franchises. Firstly, since the payment of such a huge amount was not mentioned in the franchise agreement, the release of such payment was highly irregular, unlawful and illegal. Further, no audit of the franchises was conducted by the PCB/PSL authorities, to verify the expenses of the franchises.
In view of the above details of about Rs.67 crore loss caused to the PCB, satisfactory answers are to be sought from the concerned officials at PCB and PSL officials, PCB’s Audit Committee members and external and internal auditors of the PCB; specific answers to the above questions must be brought to the notice of the public through media and posted on the website of the PCB as per standards of the PCB.
Najam Sethi is next in line for PCB chairmanship. However, before his elevation as PCB chairman, one must bring to light certain facts. It is important to ask why Sethi supported India’s inclusion into the big 3 at ICC, despite the vehement opposition of the Pakistani people.
Further, PCB received less payment in the ICC 2015 ODI World Cup, even though Najam Sethi went on record to say that PCB will receive $150 million from the ICC. In addition, when he had concrete prior information about the spot-fixing that took place in the 2nd edition of PSL, why did he not take preemptive action to nip the evil in bud?
His video statement that he decided that it was spot fixing and not match fixing, should be considered a tacit approval to let our players defame and destroy the image and reputation of Pakistan, at an international stage.
