PCB Allocates A Major Chunk Of Its Annual 7.76 Billion Rupee Budget Towards Domestic Cricket; Slashes The Overall Budget By 10%

Pakistan Cricket Board [PCB] has allocated a major chunk of its 7.76 billion rupees annual budget towards the development of domestic cricket in the country while slashing the overall budget by 10 percent in the wake of the coronavirus-induced crisis.

The annual budget was approved by the Board of Governors [BOG] on Friday. A total of 71.2 percent of the budget has been allocated to the cricketing activities.

The 71.2 percent cricket budget includes 25.2 percent for domestic cricket [events and players/match officials/player support personnel contracts and High-Performance Centre costs], 5.5 percent for women’s cricket [home/away cricket and players contracts], 19.7 percent for PSL 2021, 19.3 percent for men’s international cricket [home/away cricket and players contracts] and the remaining 1.5 percent for Medical and Sport Sciences.

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“We have followed a strict cost-benefit and value for money policy”- PCB Chief Ehsan Mani

In the Board of Governors meeting headed by PCB chief Ehsan Mani, it was also decided to slash the total budget by 10 percent, as part of the cricket board’s robust financial management and belt-tightening exercise in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These steps have been taken to ensure that despite tough financial situations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, cricket remains unaffected and the PCB continues to invest in the future,” said a PCB press-release.

The BOG also apprised that there will be a potential shortfall in the revenues as the fate of revenues from international events is still under jeopardy.

“We have followed a strict cost-benefit and value for money policy while preparing this budget taking into consideration the economic situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Ehsan Mani said.

The Board of Governors also agreed on investing in the development of infrastructure, approving a 1.22 billion rupee budget for capital infrastructure.

“The budget caters for all critical business of cricket activities, while the nice-to-have activities have been set aside as part of our cost-cutting measures and to protect our reserves for the future.” Mani added.

As far as the monthly retainer structure is concerned, the PCB will again offer 192 leading domestic cricketers with contracts. But instead of paying a flat monthly retainer of 50,000 to all players, slab-wise payments will be made this season. The four slabs are P150,000 pm, P85,000 pm, P75,000 pm and P40,000 pm.

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