PCB
faces serious financial losses after cancelled tours Years in the making, the PCB had done everything to prepare until the unthinkable happened
T
he Pakistan Cricket Board will suffer financial losses in millions as a result of New Zealand abruptly calling off their tour just before the first of three One-day Internationals was to begin in Rawalpindi due to a security threat last week. Much has been said about the decision to cancel by the New Zealand cricket board. The decision, in which Pakistan was not kept in the loop at all, has had fans jilted and the cricketing world raising eyebrows at the way New Zealand left. What has been even more of a shock has been the withdrawal of the England Cricket Board from a tour of Pakistan
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set for next month. The ECB did not even offer a reasonable explanation, and their cancellation has been labelled by former England Captain Mike Atherton as “disrespectful” and by ESPN Cricinfo’s editor Osman Sammiuddin as a “slap in the face” of Pakistan cricket. While the politics of world cricket are not for us to debate, what is clear is that Pakistan cricket will face serious damages from this financially. Already the New Zealand board has said that they will be ready to consider entering compensation negotiations with the PCB. The loss is substantial. In an interview with Dawn, a PCB official said that apart from the blow to the efforts the PCB, the gov-
ernment and the security agencies who had been making to fully restore international cricket in Pakistan, this will also have financial repercussions. According to sources with the PCB that have spoken to Profit, while a valuation has not been made a rough estimate could be somewhere around the $1.5 million mark in terms of losses. How is so much money being lost? Because the PCB’s stated aim and mission is to make money and be profitable so that it can in turn spend on the development of cricket in the country. This tour was an investment, where the PCB had spent money not just on training and hotels, but also hiring production teams for the PTV, signing a broadcast
