LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Wednesday, sought the approval of its governing board for several of its projects, pending and planned, for the development of the PCB, officials and cricket alike. The board has allocated Rs 1.5 billion for development projects. The 47th meeting of the will BoG was convened here at the National Cricket Academy with having in its agenda the chairman’s report, Pakistan Super League 2018, anti-corruption matters and dispute with BCCI. Chaired by Chairman PCB Najam Aziz Sethi, the meeting was attended by Muhammad Numan Butt, Sialkot, Murad Ismail, Quetta, Shahrez Abdullah Khan, Lahore, Mansoor Masood Khan, UBL, Dr. Najeeb Samie, HBL, Arif Ijaz, Amjad Ali Khan, Ex-Officio Member (Secretary Ministry of IPC) while who could not make were Lt. Gen (R) Muzamil Hussain, Wapda and Miftah Ismail, Sui Southern Gas Company. PCB COO Subhan Ahmed was also among the participants. Later taking to media, Sethi informed that there are plans to infuse more franchise in the Pakistan Super League while the audit of the already held PSL is near completion as a new committee has been formulated for the task. Arif Ijaz has been made the chairmen of the committee while Mansoor Masood, PCB CFO and the internal audit are its members, he added. He stated that the audit of the first edition has already been completed and further pointed out: “We plan to include regional team in the PSL.” “We had some very important discussions in the meeting,” he said. Sethi stated that in case India did not play the Test Championship with Pakistan, it will be a forfeit and Pakistan will get points. “Indian board is seeking permission from its government to play with Pakistan,” he added. He said that the members were also taken into confidence regarding the Pakistan and India bilateral series and were informed about the legalities of the dispute. “Legal case will be filed in the first week of January before the ICC dispute committee with a budget of $ One million,” he revealed an added that the ICC has made it clear that after the dispute committee the case cannot be taken to any other forum. “We want to play the series with India,” he said. “Pakistan and India matches in the FTP are deadlocked,” he said. He further stated that the up-gradation of National Stadium Karachi is underway and hoped to have it ready before the planned matches of the PSL 3 there. “We have now long and short term development plans for the stadium and in the short term there is a plan to hold the final of the PSL 3 at Karachi,” he added. Sethi informed that Dubai has requested for holding more PSL matches and the PCB team will soon visit there to finalise things. “The PSL 3 schedule will be announced in the next eight to 10 days,” he said and added that converting some of the matches from UAE to Pakistan increases the expenses. He further stated that there are plans to increase the number of teams in PSL-V. He also promised to being the entire PSL to Pakistan in the next two years but for that the capacity of stadiums also needed to be increased. He also revealed that the far end building of Rawalpindi Stadium will also be up-graded to have media boxes and some other stands. On the day, the BoG members were briefed of the plans undertaken by the board for the betterment of cricket. Sethi further stated that Quetta region’s objection of not having any of its players in the PSL was assured of having them in the next edition of the league. He also praised the performance of women team and its new coach while appointed Shahid Aslam as senior manager of the women team. Sethi said that former chairman Shaharyar Khan, Misbahul Haq and Younis Khan have been made advisors in the board.
