LAHORE, April 19: Money to the tune of Rs300 million has been added to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) kitty during the tenure of chairman Zaka Ashraf.

This was stated by Zaka at an in-house function held here at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on Thursday.

The PCB chief also announced one-month salary as ex gratia for the entire PCB staff — in recognition of their hard work.

“The PCB chairman told the meeting that owing to overall improvement in discipline, hard work, commitment and motivation the Board now has Rs300 million more in its coffers than what it had at the time he [Zaka] took over,” a PCB press release stated.

When Ijaz butt, the preceding PCB chairman left, he had issued a statement about the PCB’s financial improvement, in which he claimed that the Board had Rs5 billion in its accounts. Ijaz has also claimed that another gigantic amount of Rs6 billion would be added into the PCB fund by the end of the year 2012.

Earlier in 2008, When Ijaz took charge he had claimed that the PCB had just Rs1 billion in its accounts, with Rs900 million as liabilities.

However, if Ijaz’s claim of adding of Rs6 billion into the PCB pool of funds in 2012 is considered true then the declared increase of Rs300 million (during Zaka’s chairmanship) seems just peanuts.

“The PCB is a more efficient, better motivated and hardworking organisation and as a consequence, there is visible all-round improvement in the performance of the Board,” said the PCB chairman.

All PCB staff including the directors, general managers, managers, marketing, accounts, media and security personnel, curators, groundsmen, electricians and tea boys, all were present in the meeting in which all the directors, the chief operating officer and the chairman shared their views on the performance of the Board.

“Basically, the meeting was meant to recognise the services of its lower grade employees, through a cash incentive given by the PCB [as ex gratia], who had played such a great role in the success of the recent Faysal Bank Super Eight Twenty20 event,” the press release further stated.

Narrating Zaka’s success as PCB chairman, chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed said: “There have been other important happenings too: the [limited-overs] series with India was revived; Benazir Shaheed women’s national tournament was launched; the land for Islamabad Stadium acquired and the Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Stadium inaugurated; and the British Universities and Afghanistan teams toured Pakistan.

“Above all, due to the improved financial control and financial management, the PCB has been able to show Rs300 million more in the kitty.”

It may be mentioned that the financial benefit of reviving the series against India went to the neighbouring country.

Needless to say that just as the Pakistan team after completing their limited-overs series tour to India earlier this year were on their way back home, the BCCI declined to send its team to Pakistan to revive the series on reciprocal basis.

Moreover looking at the wider picture, the efforts of the PCB chairman to restore international cricket in Pakistan — a huge challenge for the PCB since the horrifying terror attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore in March 2009 — also failed to bear any fruit.

Meanwhile, Zakir Khan, director domestic cricket and Intikhab Alam, director international cricket, also expressed their views on Pakistan’s progress in its domestic circuit and international cricket during the era of present PCB management.

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