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| April 26, 2007 | Thursday | Rabi-us-Sani 08, 1428 |
Pakistan offered poor financial deal for Abu Dhabi series
KARACHI, April 25: The Pakistan Cricket Board has bent backwards to compete in next month's three-match one-day series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi. Well-informed sources in the board confirmed that while Pakistan had given its confirmation for the series slated from May 9, it was getting just $500,000 as appearance fee by the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council (ADCC).
"The $500,000 figure is much lower than what teams are normally paid for such off-shore tournaments which are not part of the International Cricket Council (ICC) future tours program," said a PCB insider on Wednesday. He said normally the organizers would pay between $750,000 to $800,000 for such off-shore events.
"The strange thing is that the board has a standing offer from the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series in Sharjah to give its availability for any event in return for an appearance fee of around $750,000. So why has the PCB agreed to a much lesser sum for the Abu Dhabi event is a mystery indeed," the source said.
According to sources, the ADCC was facing financial problems and it was with great difficulty that they had managed to hold the series after getting confirmation from the Sri Lankans.
"The interesting part is that the ADCC is also facing problems selling the television rights of the series because an individual from Karachi who runs a private company and sublets television rights has already defaulted on the first installement of his payment," the source said.
"The information we have is that this individual had brought the rights of the series for an undisclosed sum. But he has already defaulted on his first installement. To make matters worse, no channel has shown interest in telecasting the series because it is being held soon after the World Cup and India is not part of the event."
The source clarified that even if Sri Lanka won the World Cup final on April 28, it will not have any bearing on the commercial viability of the Abu Dhabi series. "It will not make any difference because only India has the drawing power for advertisers and sponsors because of its large consumer market."
Abu Dhabi was launched last year as an international venue with two one-day games between Pakistan and India in April that left the Indian board officials unhappy due to its poor arrangements.—Agencies
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