ASHER BUTT
LAHORE - The PCB governing board approved the budget of Rs 2.6 billion on Wednesday for the fiscal year 2010-11.
The governing board met here at the National Cricket Academy with no changes in salaries of the employees and would run as it is.
Talking to journalists here after the meeting, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt said that the budget had been approved by the PCB core committee and that there had been no salary cuts.
Butt also said commented on the fact that the PCB is an over-staffed body while the BCCI is run by only 29 people and the Cricket Australia by just 46 people.
The PCB's expected income for the current fiscal year is Rs 2.6 billion while Rs 2.3 billion are the projected expenses.
The PCB chief also informed that 75 per cent of the budget will be spent on domestic and international cricket including the teams tours.
He further termed the upgradation work at the Gaddafi Stadium as dacoity and also announced Rs 180 million for a stadium at Gari Khuda Bakhsh. But it has been learnt that the total cost of the project at Gari Khuda Bakhsh is Rs 350 million and the board has approved just half and the remaining is likely to come in the next year's budget. It is also believed that the PCB chairman has borrowed time in office by committing the construction of a stadium at Gari Khuda Bakhsh.
He further stated that the PCB was running in deficit and was unable to sent its accounts to the ICC but now everything is clear now.
He further informed that Raza Ahmed is the new Chief Finance Officer of the board and said that majority (99.9 percent) of the board staff was overpaid. "At the time of his take over, there were 1200 employees in the board while the requirement is of 600 and a summary has been sent to the Prime Minister for the downsizing," said he.
However, he said that the overall expenses of the board have been reduced for which the governing board members have also showed their concern.
Interestingly, the meeting that started at about 11am concluded within three hours and the general belief was that that one of the major opposing member of the governing board Wazir Ali Khoja did not attend the meeting due to his engagements and Ijaz Butt did not receive any resistance in taking decisions on the agenda in hand.
Ijaz said that Khoja would stay as the member of the governing board and he himself had resigned from different committees of the board while Intikhab Alam would look after the domestic cricket. As of Javed Miandad, Ijaz Butt said that he did not know of his whereabouts.
He also refused to comment on Pakistan and India series and stated that the ICC press release has already detailed the things.
Over Malcolm Speed's jibes, he said that he had written to the ICC and it would seek answers from Speed and he did not want to comment. "I believe he is not worthy to be commented on," he said and added: "Speed does not have any importance so I don't consider him worthy of an answer."
Furious over the rejection of former Australian Prime Minister John Howard's bid for the ICC vice president's post, Speed had called Ijaz a 'buffoon'. Many former Pakistan cricketers criticised Speed for his derogatory remarks against the board and its chief and some of them suggested that the board should condemn his statements in the strongest terms and seek an apology from him.
On giving central contract to Shoaib Malik and Shoaib Akhtar, he said that the players would be given contracts on their performance and not on the demand of the players.
On relations with COO Wasim Bari, PCB chief shunned all the reports and said that he had the right to send anybody to the ICC meeting and there was no truth that he was sidelined.
However, reports said that there were rifts between the two and Federal Minister for Sports Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani had mediated between them.
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