Karachi, Jun 21: The Pakistan Cricket Board, at its Annual General Body meeting, has approved a deficit budget of Rs 700 million and introduced stringent new regulations to govern the domestic circuit.
The General Body meeting, held for the first time in Naudero the hometown of the Bhutto family including slain former Prime Ministers Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, approved the deficit budget without much fuss.
“Last year contrary to popular belief we had a deficit budget of around Rs one billion so this year the finances of the board have seen a big improvement,” a member who attended the meeting said.
Not surprisingly, major portion of the approved budget will be spent on organising Pakistan's “home” series abroad because of international teams' refusal to tour the country due to of security concerns.
Other major expenses include administration and infrastructure development.
Interestingly, at a time when no foreign teams are visiting Pakistan the board is spending and will spend more on constructing new stadiums in Garhi Khuda Baksh in Naudero and Islamabad.
“The progress of work at Garhi Khuda Baksh Stadium was discussed in detail. BOG members showed their concern on the poor workmanship and delay in construction so far,” a member said.
The member also said that in order to bring about the discipline in domestic cricket, it will be brought under the umbrella of PCB, keeping it in line with the ICC requirements, and to tackle the issues like corruption, anti-doping, schedule of matches and fitness of players.
“These rules will be applicable immediately. Under these rules every private party interested in holding a cricket event/tournament on domestic level will need NOC from PCB. Without the NOC, no PCB registered player will be able to participate in that particular tournament.”
