ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was simply mistaken that the India series free-ticket controversy was dead and buried, claimed its former treasurer Muhammad Naeem on Monday.

In an exclusive interview with Dawn, Naeem said that the PCB had shot itself in the foot by issuing a press release to clarify its position and it now presented a far worse state of affairs than previously believed.

"It was earlier thought that complimentary tickets worth almost Rs7 million were unaccounted for but now the PCB has itself admitted that the actual figure is nearly Rs12 million and the board has no verifiable record in this regard."

The relationship between Naeem and PCB turned sour after the treasurer resigned in May alleging serious charges of corruption against the organisation's chairman Shaharyar M. Khan and Ramiz Raja, who quit as the chief executive in June following mounting pressure.

Upset because of Naeem's outbursts in the press, the PCB and Ramiz filed a defamation case last month against their former colleague who was in office for four years.

Unaware of what it was getting into, the PCB kept doling out complimentary tickets to their friends and cronies during the entire course of the five one-day and three-Test series and then tried to explain that tickets were given out under the heads of "administrative partners/management" (Rs3,876,700) and "contractual obligations" (Rs8,657,450).

"No one except Mr Shaharyar and Mr. Ramiz would know who were the lucky ones falling in this category as the list was never submitted to any committee," Naeem said. "Even now they have not come out with any certified list of those who benefited from this bounty, so much for transparency and financial probity."

Naeem pointed out that PCB's stand that it had no choice but to give free tickets to various government agencies and departments did not make sense. "The point is that why should the board be handing complimentary tickets to agencies like Wapda and PTCL when it is paying huge utility bills to them regularly."

Moreover, if the president and the governors were paying for their tickets, how come the PCB was obliged to grant free entry to a large number of people from the city administration, police and security agencies, he questioned.

He called upon the PCB to come out with a detailed list of the so called "administrative partners" along with the number of tickets given to each so that the partners could confirm or deny the deal.

Although he agreed that various "contractual obligations" did require grant of free tickets, he felt the amount of Rs86 lakh was staggering. "The amount being so huge makes the PCB explanation very dubious. From my own inside information and experience, I have grave doubts about the correctness of it."

In order to make things clear he called for an independent auditors certificate to verify that the amount shown under "contractual obligations" was correct. But Naeem said the PCB had cast doubts over its own explanation by saying that 4.3 per cent of seats were held back to meet 11th hour contingencies. "Very clever indeed, the board has tried to mix rupees with seats to create confusion."

"Remember that these tickets given out were also for free and only the near and dear ones are usually accommodated at the 11th hour; it is a clever term coined to use as a blanket cover."

Naeem also challenged PCB's assertion that 95.3 per cent of the seats were sold to public and fully accounted for. He said that it was not certified by independent auditors and it was misleading and designed to confuse the public mind by jugglery of figures.

"According to PCB"s own statement, net sales for one-day Internationals were Rs67,512,155 and the amount of free tickets was Rs11,957,450. It is simple maths, the proportion of free tickets to sales revenue is nearly 18 per cent."

Naeem denied that he turned against Ramiz after the CEO cancelled his request for 400 tickets. "I neither needed the tickets nor I requested for the same. Like him, I could use my office at the Qadhafi Stadium as a box and invite my family and friends."

"It was a shame though that on the one hand tickets worth Rs12 million were being thrown around like candies while on the other Ramiz wanted that senior officials of PCB should not get any tickets even on payment unless they stand in a queue at a ticket booth."

He alleged that even before sales began, tickets worth millions had been booked in advance for a list of people which would make for interesting reading when the matter is put up before the court as part of the defamation case filed by PCB and Ramiz.

"I am happy with the defamation case for it will open up a Pandora's box and there are going to be a string of surprises," he said while pointing out that although Ramiz had resigned months ago, a close liaison between him and the PCB continues.

"This is manifested by Ramiz selecting a very costly legal consultant of PCB (Rs4000 per hour) as his personal lawyer for the defamation case against me."