http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/201...ut-costs-in-absence-of-pakistan-india-series/
PCB forced to cut costs in absence of Pakistan-India series
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shahryar Khan said on Thursday if India does not confirm the series, the board is likely to cut expenditures to remain financially stable.
“Obviously we have estimated that we can generate even by a conservative estimate around $50 to $60 million from the series which translates into Rs5 to Rs6 billion for us,” a PCB official said, according to the Press Trust of India.
“The PCB has been banking on this series to generate surplus funds but if that does not happen then automatically we have to cut expenditures and go for some downsizing,” he added.
Shahryar has said publicly that an outsourced HR firm has advised reduction and merger of departments and letting go of surplus employees.
Presently, the PCB employees around 900 individuals and many of them are in well paid positions at the board headquarters and national cricket academy in Lahore.
The chairman said in a recent interview that the first step towards reducing costs would be to merge the international cricket affairs and domestic cricket affairs department in to one ‘cricket affairs’ department. Moreover, the directorial positions currently responsible for running these departments would be abolished.
Former Test captain Intikhab Alam is currently the domestic cricket director, while Zakir Khan is responsible for international cricket affairs.
The PCB source revealed that the newly concocted department of cricket affairs would be led by two General Managers and Usman Wahla and Ali Zia might be the other two candidates to be given the responsibility.
The source said there were recommendations to reduce staff by around 200 people.
“The PCB has a huge payroll and also spends a lot on subsidising domestic cricket (approximately Rs600-700 million) besides taxes payments to players and managing the national women’s junior and A teams,” said the source.
The source added that the new central contracts given to 28 players were the only pay hikes that PCB had allowed in recent times.
Another source said that presently vast amount of expenditure was being borne by the board on the Pakistan Super League (PSL) secretariat but the PCB is hopeful this money will be recovered later on when the league is launched next February.
The board official admitted that from a financial standpoint, the series against India was very lucrative as the broadcasters’ five-year contract with the board would have nearly doubled to around $150 million.
“If there is no series with India in the contractual period the amount comes down to around $80 to 90 million.”
The official also stated that right now the Pakistan board relied heavily on the shares it gets from the ICC revenues from all ICC events.
“With the World T20 scheduled next year, the Champions Trophy in 2017 and then another World T20 and the main World Cup to follow by 2019, the financial forecast is safe but expenditures are only growing,” he said.
The PCB’s money reserves were recently boosted by its share from the World Cup 2015.
