KARACHI: A day after Najam Sethi tendered his resignation as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, a top executive of the event management company which was responsible of organising the recently-held PCB Annual Awards/Titans Charity Gala in the city, sought clear-cut answers from the cricket board over the gross mismanagement witnessed on Aug 8 at a five-star hotel.

Pervez Iqbal, managing director of Big Bang Communications Private Limited (BBCL), on Tuesday demanded explanation from the PCB’s top brass as to why the planned show was deliberately sabotaged.

“As the event managers of the programme it our right to know why did they [PCB officials] ruined what was supposed to be a grand show that evening,” Pervez asked while talking to Dawn. “I can categorically state that what happened on Aug 8 wouldn’t have taken place had the PCB officials not interfered. From that point we have been forced to defend ourselves although we were not at fault in the first place.

“There are pertinent questions that need to be answered by the PCB. Did they [PCB officials] know what was the real status of Titans and the merit of appointing them as official custodians of PCB Autographs and Memorabilia show? What was the objective of the PCB/Titans Charity Gala?”

Pervez further said Sethi was hell-bent on staging the gala on Aug 8 although it was originally planned to be held on Aug 11.

“The Titans rescheduled this event for Aug 11 and it was planned as pure charity show. But in late July someone thought of making last impact on the minds of decision-makers in the new government and decided to merge PCB Awards on selfish motives, while announcing the PCB Awards jointly with Titans on Aug 11 here in Karachi,” Pervez revealed.

“On Aug 5 there was a rumour that Imran Khan will take oath as the Prime Minister on Aug 11 and Najam Sethi, in his haste, took the absurd decision of advancing this event and announced it would be held on Aug 8.

“The Titans were forced to make the last-minute changes and cards with changed date stickers pasted were dispatched for a gathering of 400 guests. However, the PCB top officials, Sethi and [board’s marketing head] Naila Bhatti blatantly misused their authority and sent e-invites to their close friends and officials with unlimited invitation to more than 150 media personnel that swelled the guests’ list to a staggering 700.

“The Titans as event owners should have controlled this but they were bypassed by the PCB bandwagon and were totally left hapless as all affairs related to media handling were clearly seen to be managed by the PCB team of permanent members.

“Mind you, this large-sized media is usually invited at a stadium [when there are matches taking place or at a media conference]. Moreover, our problems were further multiplied by the presence of a huge PCB contingent which had been flown in from the board headquarters in Lahore and provided hotel accommodation in Karachi,” Pervez went on. “We were embarrassed to say the least and a certain section of the media put the blame for the mismanagement on us, instead of taking PCB to the task.”

A visibly perturbed Pervez appealed to the new government to initiate a probe into PCB’s chaotic mismanagement and deliberate interference of their high-handed officials.

“We have nothing personally against anyone in the PCB but when their top officials resorted to damage the reputation of not only BBCL but Titans as well. In the past the BBCL has served the PCB on merit from 1996 World Cup till the last international series in Pakistan when Sri Lanka played here in 2009 and praised for their event-management handling.

“In tough times our company served in different regimes and did a reasonably good job. It is a respectable name in the market despite facing some hard time due to political victimization,” Pervez reminded. “But this was a clear case of damaging not only our [company’s] reputation] but also that of Titans since we were sure of that together we’ll managed in a very professional manner and were confident of what it was supposed to do. However, with PCB Awards they lost a good opportunity to make a lasting impact.”

Pervez also expressed his surprise at the way former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was allowed by the PCB chairman to humiliate Faisal Edhi, son of renowned social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi who died in July 2016, by doubling Edhi Foundation donation of Rs2.5 million for the Shahid Afridi Foundation.

“Was it a Shahid Afridi show and how could he [Afridi] humiliate Faisal by promptly announcing Rs5 million for the Edhi Foundation,” Pervez queried. “The PCB made it look like a Shahid Afridi Foundation show to the audience.

“Moreover, the winners of PCB awards were directly announced without short-listing nominees for each of the categories since basically it is a normal practice adopted by other fields.”

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2018