Provincial Associations Setup: Senate body summons PCB chief for briefing

ISLAMABAD: As the clouds of uncertainty still loom over the administrative setup of the provincial associations, the Senate Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) has summoned Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ehsan Mani for a comprehensive briefing on the new domestic cricket structure.

Almost 11 months into approval of the new constitution, the six provincial associations’ setup has yet to be announced, resulting in PCB’s direct control over the teams’ administration, selection and other matters.

In a recent interview, Mani admitted that the PCB had been facing some problems in provincial associations’ registration. At the same time, he announced that only Northern Association was registered yet.

Departmental cricket was abolished after introduction of the new PCB constitution and that resulted in joblessness of the a number of players and and support staff.

It is believed that in the next meeting the Senate body wants to know alternative measures the PCB’s think-tank has in mind to accommodate maximum cricketers who have lost their jobs.

The PCB chairman has already left for the UK to avail himself of his annual leave. It is not clear whether the chief executive of the PCB would attend the meeting on chairman’s behalf or the board would request another date for briefing.

PCB’s Director Media Sami-ul-Hasan, when approached, said that the chairman had offered to brief the Senate body’s members through video link from the UK.

“We were told that the chairman could send his alternative for the briefing on the new domestic cricket structure and we will do that,” he said.

Among other things, the next meeting will be considering declining standards of athletics, snooker, squash, boxing and hockey in the country.

‘The News’ has learnt that a questionnaire in this regard has been forwarded to the federations concerned and the replies have been submitted to the ministry for IPC.

In their replies, most federations have defended their position, saying that running a top game required financial support of over Rs50 million annually. Some federations said that in many cases the share of the government in the respective game was less than 10 percent. A single trip of a team to any European, Far East Asia or Australian country costs a federation around Rs7 million. Usually a team has to make several trips in a year to keep up the tempo of the players.

The other item on the agenda is restructuring of the Pakistan Sports Board. A comprehensive briefing from the officials concerned regarding government’s plans to restructure the autonomous body is also on the cards. The PSB currently has no director general — a position vacant for over a year now. The board has been run by DGs appointed on ad hoc basis. Most of them got additional charge while working in the ministry. But at present, there is not even an ad hoc DG.