Asia Cup: PCB likely to suffer massive hit as marquee event hangs in uncertainty

As the future of this year`s Asia Cup T20 tournament still hangs in uncertainty, there are likely chances of Pakistan Cricket Board receiving a major hit to its revenue.

The board is expecting to collect approximately 8.8 billion rupees as its share of the revenue from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).

According to a source close to PCB, the board is expecting an amount of USD 25.9 million (approximately 7.7 billion rupees) during this year as its share from the ICC. They are expecting to earn a total of 1.16 billion rupees from the Asia Cup and 7.77 million rupees through other international cricket events.

“The revenues from these two major sources (ICC and Asia Cup) is very important for the financial health of Pakistan cricket,” the source said.

He said the uncertainty over the schedule and venue for the Asia Cup has increased as PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi did not travel to Singapore for the ICC meetings last weekend.

Naqvi, who is also the federal interior minister, instead took part in the AGM virtually.

According to the insider, PCB CEO Sumair Ahmed, who had gone for the ICC meeting, “didn`t get positive responses” from either the BCCI or the boards of Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan over attending the ACC meeting called on July 24 in Dhaka to finalise the Asia Cup arrangements.

“The PCB met with plenty of resistance to the ACC scheduling the meeting in Dhaka. India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Oman and few other associate member boards were adamant about not travelling to Dhaka,” one insider added.

He said the discussions on the sidelines of the ICC meeting don`t augur well for the Asia Cup being held on schedule in September as the BCCI is not willing to send its representative to Dhaka.

Initially, India was supposed to host the Asia Cup in September, but due to the existing tensions between India and Pakistan, there is high chance that the event moved to UAE.

Sumair was also sent to Dubai earlier this year to attend the Champions Trophy final ceremony, but due to some “miscommunication”, he was not a part of the officials who were on stage for the presentations.

Interestingly, as a part of the expected revenue given in the budget for the year, the PCB has included 2.5 billion rupees as the estimated revenue from the next edition of the Pakistan Super League. The PCB`s total budget for the year is around 18.8 billion rupees.

(With PTI Inputs)