LAHORE, Oct 21: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has signed contracts worth Rs 593 million with different business houses from Jan 1, 2006 to March 2008 including the home series against England, starting from Oct 26.

Riaz Mahmood, the marketing consultant PCB, who is being paid on an hourly basis, disclosed the details at a press conference on Friday.

The England series, comprising three Test and five ODIs was sold out for Rs 64 million.

The PCB also sold out “Bundled” commercial rights for Future Tours Programme series to be played in Pakistan between Jan 2006 to March 2008 for an amount of Rs 488 million.

According to the information released five home series’ are scheduled to be held from Jan 2006 to March 2008, including the next year’s series against arch-rivals India.

But the whole five series could only fetch Rs 488 million, whereas, the PCB had sold out the rights for the last home series against India in 2004 for Rs 430 million.

The other four home series are Zimbabwe (Oct, 2006), West Indies (Nov-Dec 2006), South Africa (Oct, 2007) and Australia (Feb-March 2008).

The “Bundled” deal for the five series was signed with a company based in Singapore and the amount is payable over the period of the contract.

The PCB had set the reserve price of Rs 435 million for the five series but the successful bid was almost Rs 54 million higher than the reserve price.

However, it is not clear on what basis the PCB set the reserve price.

The ‘Bundled” package includes title sponsorship, co-sponsorship and in-stadia advertising rights.