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| February 28, 2006 | Tuesday | Muharram 29, 1427 |
PCB fails to provide details to Senate
ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which invited foreign guests for the home series against England has openly ignored providing full details to the Senate.
Responding to a question put to the board by Senator Mohammad Enver Baig through the sports minister, the cricket managers have sent in only sketchy details.
The PCB had been asked to submit a comprehensive account of all the guests, the class of air passage, reasons for extending invitation and the kind of accommodation provided to them.
But disregarding the importance of the question, the PCB chose to respond only to questions it thought appropriate while leaving out important details such as how much money was spent on air fares, which must be in millions.
These invitees must have been at least provided First Class or Buisness Class tickets.
“This is where the problem lies as the PCB tries to keep us in the dark about its misdeeds but this practice has to end,” an angry Enver told Dawn.
“They have conveniently ignored answering a major chunk of my question and I have already written to the Senate Chairman apprising him of the matter.”
The Board has disclosed it spent only Rs 1.095 million on hosting the guests, as the list having such names as Malcolm Speed, chief executive of International Cricket Council (ICC), commentator Geoffrey Boycott and Abdul Rehman Bokhatir, chairman of the Cricketers’ Benefit Fund Series (CBFS).
Some of the guests namely Geofrey Boycott, Tom Cox (Chairman Cheam Surrey) and Mr & Mars Mark Williams (Chief Executive Lord Taverners) invited by the PCB makes no sense.
The PCB has not cited reasons for extending invitation to the foreign guests whose number according to the list provided by them is 22.
The Board has also not given expenses involved on their international and domestic travel.
What are mentioned though are details on hotel expenditure and surface travel. For example Boycott’s accommodation cost was Rs 132,236, if the figures furnished by the Board are to be believed.
Similarly, hotel and surface travel bills of David F. Morgan, chairman of the ECB totalled Rs 135,074 while those of Bokhatir were Rs 75,788.
Meanwhile, the PCB true to its notorious past doled out 2140 free tickets for the England Test series to its administrative partners/contractual obligations.
The figures have been provided to the Senate which form part of Enver’s second question on complimentary tickets. The Board says it distributed another 3748 tickets under the same head for the one-day series.
On the other hand, the sponsors were issued 2480 free tickets for both the Test and one-day series while 8586 were given away to PCB officials, former chief executives, Test cricketers and others.
A total of 39220 tickets for Test matches were provided to students, senior citizens, club cricketers and ladies free of cost through the designated bank.
Enver, the most vocal of PCB critics said that cricket under Shaharyar M. Khan was continuing to suffer with the much- trumpeted constitution yet to see light of day.
“It can’t be that the constitution is lying with the PCB Patron for the last six months, it is just that Shaharyar is taking everyone for a ride by not presenting the true picture.”
PCB’s guest list: Mr & Mrs Mark Williams (Chief Executive The Lord Taverners), Tom Cox (Chairman Cheam Surrey), Mr & Mrs Malcolm Speed (Chief Executive ICC), Paul Russell (chairman Glamorgan), Mr & Mrs Robin Marlar (president MCC), David Morgan (chairman ECB), Derek Newton (ex president Surrey), Colin Gibson (Director Corporate Communications ECB), Mr & Mrs Ehsan Mani and daughter Asma Mani (president ICC), Muhammad Redha Abbas (vice chairman Emirates Cricket Board), Andrew Chandler (ECB guest), Neil Fairbrother (ECB guest), David Collier (chief executive ECB), Mr & Mrs John More (HR & Administration Manager ICC), Abdur Rehman Bokhatir (chairman CBFS), Zahid Noorani (chief executive CBFS), Mr & Mrs Roger Knight (secretary & chief executive MCC), Geoffrey Boycott (ex-Test cricketer and commentator), Raj Singh Dangarpur (BCCI representative), John Carr (Director cricket operations ECB), Mr & Mrs Michael Soper (deputy chairman ECB), Stacey Muruthi (Malaysian Cricket Association Representative).
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