PCB chief dismisses criticism

LAHORE: PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan has dismissed criticism over his decision to request the ICC to set up a special fund for Pakistan cricket due to international teams’ refusal to tour the country since 2009 for security reasons.

ICC’s former president Ehsan Mani had criticised the PCB for requesting the ICC to set up a special fund to offset the revenue losses.

“It is shameful what the PCB has done. It is very disappointing for me. Instead of going to the ICC with a begging bowl the PCB should curtail and control its expenses,” he said last week.

Mani also advised the PCB to make it clear to the ICC that it wouldn’t play against India in any ICC event round matches.

But Shaharyar said from London that Pakistan’s stance was justified since people had failed to realise the difficulties the PCB had faced in running cricket affairs during the last six years.

“We know the difficulties we have faced managing cricket because while our revenues have suffered due to India not playing bilateral series since 2007, our expenses have increased due to inflation,” he said.

He said that the PCB had been paying the players well despite financial constraints and also subsidising domestic cricket and development projects.

The former career diplomat said the decision to not play India in an ICC event in group matches would be extreme and the PCB was not thinking about it.

“We are still hopeful that by next year India will agree to a bilateral series,” he said.

Shaharyar said Pakistan had received a positive response from the ICC members on its request for financial support. “We gave a detailed presentation with figures to back up our claims. The member boards took it positively and said they sympathised with our position,” Shaharyar said.

He said the Pakistan Task Force head Giles Clarke would go through the demand to suggest ways in which the ICC can support PCB.

“I will meet Clarke soon who is also head of the ICC financial committee and submit a paper outlining our needs,” he said.