ISLAMABAD: As many as 23 officials having age of 60 years and above are the contractual employees of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), revealed the concerned ministry official when a question was raised by Senator Irfanul Haque Siddique during a recent Senate’s session.
73-year old former Test cricketer Wasim Bari who draws Rs307,200 monthly salary is with the High Performance Centre. Dr Riaz Ahmed, aged 63 and over is with the medical department drawing Rs452, 823 monthly salary. 73-year old Lt Col (r) Ashfaq Ahmed who draws Rs423,552 salary is also working on contract in the PCB HR Department. In the same way, there are 20 others above the age of 60 years who are working on contract with the PCB.
A few years back, the PCB Board of Governors had decided against hiring over 60 years of age officials on contractual basis. However, a PCB official when contacted said that there was no such existing rule that bars the continuation of services for over 60 officials.
Responding to the question Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr. Fehmida Mirza furnished that all such appointments were made in accordance with the applicable PCB rules regulations approved by the Board of Governors.
To Senator Irfan-UI-Haque Siddique’s another question related to doling out Pakistan Super League (PSL) rights. To whether it is a fact that PCB signed a contract with ‘Techfront International’ to grant live streaming media rights for PSL for three years from 2019 to 2021 with permission of betting/gambling on PSL matches in countries where betting is licensed without prior permission of PCB; and whether it is a fact that Techfront International further sublicensed rights to betting company in Britain which held betting publicly on PSL 5 matches under permission granted in the agreement?
The minister replied that the PCB did not grant any such right or permission to Techfront International of betting/gambling on PSL matches in countries where betting is licensed. When this transgression came to PCB’s knowledge, PCB instructed Techfront International to stop this act and rectify its lapse. Subsequently, Techfront International tendered its apology to PCB on May 30, 2020. The detail is at Annex-I.
Furthermore, PCB terminated its media rights contract with Techfront International on September 17, 2017. The detail is at Annex-II.
The minister also raised questions as to whether it is a fact that the PCB has done away with departmental cricket resulting in the unemployment of more than 2000 cricketers?
Dr Fehmida Mirza: At the very outset, it is pertinent to highlight that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is a body corporate having perpetual succession and has been established as a Board under Sports (Development and Control) Ordinance 1962 by the Federal Government through S.R.O No. 1045 (1)/2019, notified on 19th August 2019 (i.e. the PCB Constitution). PCB undertakes all its functions as prescribed therein and all affairs in respect of the management and administration of the Board in accordance with the said PCB Constitution.
The changes to the domestic cricket structure of Pakistan, through which departmental cricket has been replaced by teams representing six Cricket Associations across Pakistan, have been brought about by the 2019 PCB Constitution referred to above issued by the Federal Government of Pakistan. Prior to the implementation of the current PCB Constitution in 2019, in the previous domestic cricket structure, a total of 8 departments were playing First-Class cricket and 26 departments were playing Grade 2 cricket.
Each department had a team consisting of 20 members approximately. In totality, a total of 680 individuals consisting of players and support staff were representing these departments and were to be affected by the change in the domestic cricket structure, however, it is pertinent to note that most of these players and support staff were engaged by the PCB for different periods ranging from 6 months to 12 months.