“The CoA has notified acting board secretary Amitabh Choudhary that if he wishes to stay back in England following the ICC annual conference from June 28 to July 2 in Dublin, to watch India’s three T20I matches against England, the BCCI will not bear their expenses,” the news said.
“Kindly ensure that expenses towards ticketing and hotel stay are limited to the extent borne by ICC.”
That’s an open indication that BCCI whose income is close to 4000 crore rupees against an expenditure of 1,272 is not willing to spend a few hundred thousand rupees on joyrides of its officials.
It’s in total contrast to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in which the theme is “maale-muft, dil-e-bayrehm” (free money so spend without mercy). Gone are the days when astute heads like Air Martial Nur Khan would never allow such free joyrides. But in the last two decades PCB’s money is spent like water as if the Board has broken the bank!
PCB’s revenues have been badly hit since 2009 terrorists’ attacks forced the national team to play all its home matches in United Arab Emirates. To rub salt into the wounds, India also avoided playing Pakistan is a huge loss on the coffers. An estimated 150 million dollars have been incurred in losses but there are no let-ups in the lavish expenses of the Board.
The Nawab of Bhopal Shaharyar M. Khan made the PCB his own empire and whenever confronted on his using PCB’s finances on tours his defense was that he didn’t draw any salary! Shaharyar never let go any opportunity to tour abroad on PCB”s expenses and if a proper assessment is done on his expenses is done PCB should have been better off paying him a hefty salary than his joyrides.
he Nawab used the provision in PCB’s rules and had his heart operation done in a UK hospital in 2016. That cost PCB a whopping 6.5 million rupees in addition to his daily allowances and taxis used. He also reportedly bought a VIP box at Lord’s to entertain his acquaintances.
Initially it was said that Khan had gone to the UK for vacation. But it was later reported that he was utilizing the 1300 pounds daily allowance for his entire stay in UK which would amount to roughly around 39,000 pounds for 30 days in UK.
Doctor Nasim Ashraf and Chowdhry Zaka Ashraf also had no peers in lavishly spending PCB’s money on themselves, and Zaka on hi family despite being affluent themselves.
Najam Sethi is no exception. As the executive committee head he was initially reserved in taking tours. His daily allowances were the same as his predecessor Shaharyar Khan but all of 1300 pounds went to his pocket as he has his own flat in London.
A breakdown of the 1300 pounds daily allowance was reported by PTI in 2016 as 500 pounds allowance, 600 pounds for hotel and 200 pounds for travel costs.
So Sethi’s sojourn of UK started with a tour to Ireland where he was invited by the Irish Board to witness country’s debut Test against Pakistan. Following the lead from Shaharyar, Sethi’s visit was also highlighted for his meetings with ICC Task team in UK and to convince the Irish Board to send their team to Pakistan – a task which can easily be achieved through correspondence! Taking advantage of him being in Ireland Sethi also presented Imam-ul-Haq Test cap – a unique feat for the head of a cricket board.
PCB’s director cricket operations Haroon Rasheed also had a joyride of UK on the pretext of arranging junior tours with ECB and to have discussion with the manufacturers of cricket balls – another 900 dollars per day expenses! PCB governing board members have also enjoyed free rides to UAE, UK and to Australia for the 2015 World Cup. Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq washed his hands in the flowing money without achieving much.
So with no accountability of such tours the officials are thriving and consuming the already badly-hit coffers of the PCB.
