The new chief of Pakistan cricket has voiced serious concerns about thepoor financial health the PCB has been left in by the previousadministration
Cricinfo staff21-Oct-2008
Ijaz Butt cast doubt over claims by his predecessor Nasim Ashraf that he had insured the Australian tour of Pakistan earlier this year © AFP
The new chief of Pakistan cricket has voiced serious concerns about thepoor financial health the PCB has been left in by the previousadministration.Ijaz Butt was appointed chairman of the board two weeks ago and in hisfirst press conference made a number of remarkable revelations. Among themore serious and relevant to Pakistan cricket were the financial problems.”Since assuming charge, I have gone through the PCB’s budget but couldonly find that there is no income and only expenditures,” Butt said.”The PCB could receive only 5% of the revenues it had estimatedin the annual budget. However, it has spent out more than 90% ofthe estimated expenditures account,” Butt said.Butt avoided disclosing details of what reserves are left with the boardbut claimed that only a third of the amount claimed by the outgoingchief was in the bank.”Though it is a fact that due to security reasons, Australia’s tour andICC Champions Trophy could not be held and, under such circumstances, anorganisation is forced to review the estimated budget, but in PCB theprevious management did not follow the principle and continued to makehuge expenses,” he said.Butt went on to cast doubt over claims by his predecessor Nasim Ashrafthat he had insured the Australian tour of Pakistan scheduled earlier thisyear. At the time there was considerable ambiguity over whether the serieshad been insured.”Soon after taking charge, I read out the related documents of theinsurance but there is nothing concrete and it all looks like a fraud,”Butt said.The allegations didn’t stop there. The recent agreement signed between the PCB and Dubai Sports City also came in for questioning. “Imet the authorities in Dubai and they reminded me about the contractsigned by the previous management. But when I asked them to show me thewritten agreement they could not and it was, apparently, done verballywhich is no good,” Butt said.”The PCB and the BCCI have also agreed to ask the Sports City authoritiesin Dubai to double the amount if India and Pakistan feature in the contestin any of three years,” he said.