LAHORE: Former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Khalid Mahmood on Saturday expressed his disappointment over a statement of incumbent PCB chairman Ramiz Raja before the Senate Standing Committee on Sports given this week that “Pakistan cricket could collapse if the Indian prime minister decides to stop Pakistan’s funding (from the ICC)”.

“As a former chairman of the PCB who has been involved for almost fifty years promoting cricket in Pakistan, I find the statement of the current chairman reportedly made before the Senate Standing Committee highly shocking in which a ridiculous claim has been made that Pakistan cricket is funded by India and if Modi stops this funding, our cricket could collapse,” Khalid said in a written statement.

“Fail to figure out why the current [PCB] chairman is speaking the language of our worst enemy, but know for a fact that revenue for ICC events is raised through the joint effort of all ICC members and distributed as per an established formula that excludes any elements of charity by or to any member country,” the statement added.

“This is a too serious matter to be ignored and calls for a drastic action at the highest level against those making such idiotic and unpatriotic comments,” Khalid concluded.

It may be mentioned here that former opener Ramiz gave the abovementioned statement at a meeting headed by the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Sports Raza Rabbani.

During that briefing, Ramiz while expressing his concern over the bad situation of Pakistan cricket said he had lost his sleep after monitoring the current position of the PCB.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2021