PCB finalises new budget

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has approved the budget for the year 2010-2011, with a projected income of Rs 2.6 billion while 75 per cent of the budget has been allocated for the development of cricket and off-shore tours.

“The budget for this year has been approved with the projected income of Rs2.6 billion and projected expenses of Rs2.3 billion, with most of the revenue coming from the [2011] World Cup,” said the PCB Chief Finance Officer Raza Hasan after the governing board’s meeting at the National Cricket Academy. The meeting was attended by seven members of the governing board, as Director General PCB, Javed Miandad and Wazir Ali Khoja could not attend the meeting.

“Most of the budget will be spent on cricket related activities that include the domestic cricket structure, Pakistan off-shore tours, and development of cricket grounds in the country and the remaining will be spent on the administration,” added Raza.

Considering Pakistan’s isolation with the cricketing world that has restricted the country to play their home series in other countries, the budget has now been increased up to 60 per cent and Rs0.3 billion would be available as a surplus.

Meanwhile, the PCB chairman Butt said that the board’s staff included too many people and they were overpaid in comparison to other countries such as India and Australia.

“With due respect, our staff is being overpaid. When I took over the PCB had a staff of 1,200 people which has now been reduced to 600,” said Butt. “And some of the governing members have also pointed out that our administrative expenses are too much.”

Published in The Express Tribune , July 8^th, 2010.