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The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has accused the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) of financial irregularities. It reportedly pointed out the financial irregularities in the PCB amounting to millions of Pakistani rupees. The AGP identified several issues, including illegal appointments, non-transparent contract awarding, unjustified expenditures on tours, matches, and administrative costs, as well as irregular payments to contractors and consultants. These findings have raised serious questions on governance and accountability in the PCB.
From September 2021 to December 2022, a former Pakistani cricketer, Ramiz Raja has served as the PCB Chairman. Since then, the position has been filled by the PCB three times. Najam Sethi served as the PCB Chairman from December 2022 to June 2023. From June 2023 to July 2024, Zaka Ashraf served in this position before Mohsin Naqvi took over in February 2024. Naqvi’s appointment was unopposed and unanimous, with a three-year term stipulated.
The AGP found out several irregularities while auditing. They have exposed financial irregularities amounting to millions of rupees in the PCB. A payment of 63.39 million rupees to the police for meals to provide security during international matches is one of the errors that have been mentioned in the audit report.
Another finding in the audit report suggests that the PCB has appointed three coaches for the age-group cricket (Under-16 Level) at the high-performance centre in Karachi. The report said it was an unauthorised appointment, which includes the total salary spending of 5.4 million rupees. It also mentioned the irregularities and non-transparent awarding of ticketing contracts, without any open competition.
The overpayment of match officials regarding the match fees has also been mentioned in the report. As per the audit report, the overpayment of match fees amounts to 3.8 million rupees. The amount of 90,000 per month has been given to the Director of Media, and the report says it was an irregular appointment. From February 2024 to June 2024, a chairperson received an unauthorised payment of 4.17 million rupees on account of POL, accommodations, and utility charges. All these irregularities took place even though the Chairman served as the Interior Minister, and all his benefits were legally allowed.
The things did not stop just after the above-mentioned findings. Apart from those, the AGP highlighted the unauthorised appointment of the Director of Media in 2023. The PCB did not follow any process to fill the Director Media spot. They have advertised the hiring of the position on August 17, 2023. But the AGP report suggests that the application submission, day of application, appointment approval, and issuance of the appointment letter happened on the same day (October 02, 2023). Even the signing of the agreement and joining also happened on October 02, 2023.
The PCB has spent money without proper bids, as the AGP report suggests. After all the findings, the AGP mentioned in the report that:-
An amount of 19.8 million was spent on diesel for bulletproof vehicles, given by the Punjab government.
The PCB spent 22.5 million on the hiring of coasters.
The AGP found out the loss of 198 million due to the selling of media rights at less than the reserved price.
Without any open competition, USD 99 million has been given irregularly for international broadcasting rights..
Failure to recover outstanding sponsorship amounts totaling 5.3 billion rupees.
As of now, no PCB Chairman has been held accountable for these irregularities. This is not the first time that the Auditor General of Pakistan has pointed out the mismanagement in the spending of the PCB. The AGP has also mentioned the other irregular activities inside the PCB. In fact, this is not the first time that the PCB has fallen into controversy. They have been in the media headlines for numerous reasons like mismanagement of players and coaches, unstable domestic structure, political interference, corruption issues, financial irregularities, inconsistent management, and more. Let us now see the problems PCB has faced over the years.
The PCB has not continued with the one individual in the leadership role. Babar Azam was sacked after the Pakistan Cricket team’s disappointing campaign in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 in India. Shaheen Shah Afridi was given the leadership role, but just after one bad series as captain in New Zealand (NZ), he was sacked from the role. After Sarfaraz Ahmed, the PCB has given the role to four individuals in test cricket. Those are Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shan Masood. In white-ball cricket as well, frequent changes in the role have happened over the years.
These frequent changes did not help the Pakistan cricket team’s cause. It hampers the stability in the team as every new captain will come up with their ideas, and it will take them some time to get into the act.
This is one of the major problems that the PCB has faced over the years. Connecting to the above-mentioned point of captaincy, at one stage, there were so many individuals in the team who wanted to become the captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team. As per the media reports, we have heard that there was a rift going on between the players (particularly Babar Azam and Shaheen Shah Afridi) regarding the captaincy. There were groups divided in the dressing room, which was not a good sign for the team.
The PCB has been accused of appointing individuals who are not fit for the role. Every management looks to bring in their own people for the role in the PCB, like the selectors, coaches, chairman, captain, etc. It disrupts continuity, planning, and execution in the board.
The PCB found themselves wanting when it comes to managing the players and the coaches. Some players have even questioned their board for not caring about their players' injuries. As far as coaches are concerned, we have seen in the recent past how Jason Gillespie and Gary Kirsten prematurely left their roles in the Pakistan cricket team. There were other instances in the past as well, where a coach abruptly left the role in the Pakistan cricket team.
Pakistan’s domestic cricket structure has been revamped multiple times in short periods, leading to instability and confusion. Many former players have criticized PCB for neglecting grassroots cricket.
Though players are directly involved, critics often point to PCB’s weak education and enforcement systems that fail to adequately deter or monitor corruption risks. We have heard a lot of things regarding the match fixing done by the Pakistani players in different leagues around the world. In internationals also, Mohammad Amir’s case in England is not hidden from anyone.
A regular political interference in the board’s day-to-day happening will not help the team’s cause. It can only lead to chaos, confusion, and the downfall of the cricket team.
There have been logistical failures, delayed schedules, and controversies around the Pakistan Super League (PSL), such as payment delays to players and franchises.
The list will go on and on. These are just a few things that we have pointed out in this article. The PCB’s problem sheet is quite bigger than this. As far as the latest controversy around the financial irregularities, the PCB will have to look into the matter closely and try to sort things out quickly.
The government response, Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Immediate Board Meetings, Internal Reforms, and all these things will now come into play. Let’s see how things panned out for the PCB.
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