Lahore, 13 September 2020: In the 9 September 2020 Daily Express article, which was translated and reproduced by sister organization The Tribune under the headline PCB’s excessive spending continues despite Covid-19, the newspaper leveled serious and libelous financial allegations against the Pakistan Cricket Board without taking the trouble to cross-check the facts and background.
The facts are:
i) The Board of Governors (BoG), in its 57th meeting held in Peshawar on 4 February 2020, approved the PCB Financial Statements for the period 2018-2019, which highlighted a significant rise in revenue of about PKR6billion. The statements are available on the corporate site
ii) The BoG, in its 58th meeting held via a virtual session on 26 June 2020, approved a PKR7.76billion operating expenditure budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year, which was a 10 per cent reduction from the 2019-20 budget as part of the PCB’s austerity, robust financial management and belt-tightening exercise. Budget details and breakdown have been publicised through the BoG outcomes release, and subsequently via the 5th Edition of the PCB Quarterly Newsletter. Both are available on the corporate site
iii) PCB’s financial outlook is stronger than ever and the reserves continue to increase due to the board’s approach and strategy around austerity and tight financial controls. Despite the pandemic challenges, the PCB’s forecasted cash flow reserve for the 2020-21 fiscal year will be higher than the current balance
iv) Financial audits for 2019-20 are in process and, as per the PCB’s transparency policy, will be uploaded on the corporate website
v) On 6 June 2020, the PCB had announced its annual incremental increase policy, which is available here with the relevant extracts from the media release reproduced below:
- After past culture of all PCB staff receiving substantial annual incremental increases, we have made a decision to tighten our expenditure over the next 12 months and only award increases to staffers who earn PKR100,000 a month or less. This will commence from the new fiscal year, which starts on 1 July
vi) In addition to the above, and after taking into account outstanding performances of the PCB staffers in the 2019-20 cricket season in which the PCB staged nearly 225 domestic matches, international home series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and also hosted the MCC and HBL PSL 2020, the PCB management, in its absolute discretion and following recommendations from the department heads, awarded promotions to nine high-performing personnel, while 20 received cash increments
vii) Major replacements within the organization in key positions and without any additional financial burden on the PCB’s coffers have been in the following areas:
o Player Support Personnel of the Pakistan men’s cricket team
o Player Support Personnel of the Pakistan women’s cricket team
o Player Support Personnel of the Pakistan U19 cricket team
o Chief Operating Officer, who has replaced Mr Subhan Ahmed
o Chief Financial Officer, who has replaced Mr Badar Manzoor Khan
o Director - High Performance, who has replaced Director – Academies (Mudassar Nazar) and Director – Domestic Cricket (Haroon Rashid)
o Grant Bradburn, who has replaced Mr Ali Zia
o Mohammad Yousuf, who has replaced Mr Mansoor Rana
o Mohammad Zahid, who has replaced Mr Mohsin Kamal
o Atiq-uz-Zaman, who has replaced Mr Abdul Majeed
o Asser Malik, who has replaced Mr Mushtaq Ahmed (SGM – Operations)
viii) These replacements were formally announced through various media releases, which are available on the PCB corporate website and can be found here, here, here, here and here.
ix) 15 new Cricket Association coaches for the 2020-21 season replaced the 2019-20 coaches. This announcement was made via a media release, which is available here. Among the 15 new coaches are eight former international stars Abdul Razzaq (46 Tests, 265 ODIs and 32 T20Is), Aizaz Cheema (seven Tests 14 ODIs and five T20Is), Basit Ali (19 Tests and 50 ODIs), Faisal Iqbal (26 Tests, 18 ODIs), Ghulam Ali (three ODIs and 167 first-class matches), Humayun Farhat (one Test and five ODIs), Irfan Fazil (one Test, one ODI) and Zafar Iqbal (eight ODIs)
x) These former internationals have been engaged due to their cricket knowledge, experience, understanding and following a 360-assessment, performance review and robust recruitment process, and not because of their views about the Pakistan men’s national cricket team or the PCB
xi) The performance review and recruitment process, included: survey, self- assessment, 360-assessment, panel interview and application process. This review and assessment was carried out by Grant Bradburn (Head of High Performance Coaching), Saqlain Mushtaq (Head of International Player Development) and Shahid Aslam (National Men’s Team Assistant). The panel submitted their recommendations to Director – High Performance, which were subsequently approved by the Chief Executive. Members of the PCB Cricket Committee were kept abreast of the process and developments. Details of the review and recruitment process are explained in a media release, which is available here.
The PCB welcomes, encourages and supports factual reporting and constructive criticism, but there is no space for baseless and agenda-based campaign along with character assassination either in the noble profession of journalism or any civilised society.
