11 November 2004	Thursday	27 Ramazan 1425

ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: Former treasurer Muhammad Naeem on Wednesday confirmed that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and its ex-chief executive Ramiz Raja had served a legal notice on him for what they claim were "defamatory" remarks made by him.

"Yes I have received the notice," Naeem responded when Dawn contacted him at his home in Lahore.

The notice dated Nov 6, refers to press reports in which Naeem had asked PCB boss Shaharyar M. Khan to explain where did tickets worth Rs 7 million for the Pakistan-India series go.

"The article reproduces comments made by you that are defamatory to our clients....we have been instructed to initiate an action for defamation against you in respect of the said comments," says the legal notice.

Naeem tendered his resignation in May after levelling serious charges of financial and administrative wrongdoing on the top PCB officials.

The treasurer who was in office for over four years had made the remarks that the PCB lawyers refer to, at a programme organised by the Sports Journalists Association Lahore (SJAL) on Sept 6.

"The chairman (Shaharyar) has a false claim of completing the reconciliation of tickets," Naeem had alleged.

In the programme, he told journalists that Shaharyar and Ramiz had under their control tickets amounting to Rs 16 million out of which there was no record for Rs 7 million.

India toured Pakistan in March-April for a Test and one-day series during which widespread mismanagement of tickets was reported. It resulted in genuine fans being deprived of watching matches as PCB officials went about obliging their near and dear ones.

Although the PCB tried to clarify its position on sale of tickets, the public was not willing to accept their statements as true, claiming it was another attempt to hoodwink them.

The ticket scam was also taken up by the Senate Standing Committee on Sports which grilled Shaharyar and Ramiz on the matter. In one of those meetings, Naeem had objected to Shaharyar's financial powers as the PCB head. "How come he has full financial freedom when even the Prime Minister does not enjoy such powers."

The PCB recently released figures for the India series saying it had earned Rs 75,330,155 through sale of tickets.

Interestingly, the PCB's own in-house audit statement shows that tickets worth Rs 3,878,700 for the five one-day matches were given away under the head of Administrative Partners/Management.

The statement becomes vague especially because no mention of the actual beneficiaries is made. But this is not all. A further Rs 8,078,750 of tickets is reflected under the head of Contractual Obligations while 4.7 percent of seats were held back for meeting 11th hour contigencies.

The audit statement is in stark contrast to Shaharyar's claim before the series that no complimentary tickets would be given out.

As it was during that series, the trend continued during the recent tri-series involving Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe when hundreds of complimentary tickets were distributed.

The first indication of that came following a row between PCB's media consultant and an adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister.

To settle the matter, Shaharyar apologised to the government official and said that complimentary tickets had been dispatched to him as he had wished.

The adviser, however, denied that he had ever requested for free tickets and also made it clear that he never received the tickets.