LAHORE, May 3: Several former cricketers expressed their concern on Thursday over the fate of Pakistan Cricket Board’s ‘Pension Fund scheme’ that was announced in February this year, saying they had not received a penny under the said scheme.

A number of retired Test cricketers rang up the newspaper offices on Thursday to say that no progress had been made on the pension scheme from the day PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf announced it in the presence of President Pervez Musharraf in the last week of Feb in an impressive function at the Gaddafi Stadium.

The chairman reiterated his plans to implement the scheme at another function which was held in honour of Pakistan team prior its departure to the West Indies for the 2007 World Cup.

The PCB, for the last one and half years, had been considering the pension scheme for former players but nothing has materialised to date. According to PCB’s plans for pension scheme, the first phase would have seen a certain amount of money released as pension to those cricketers who played Test cricket till 1978. That would make some 160 Test cricketers eligible for the scheme.

But on Thursday, it became fairly clear that the board’s scheme had begun to backfire and earn the wrath of the former players. A former Test cricketer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the PCB had even failed to set up the Pension Fund for which it had earmarked Rs 300 million.

He also disclosed that the cheques given to some five former Test cricketers by the president of Pakistan on the spot as mark of inauguration of the scheme could not be cashed since they bore only one signature which did not suffice in the case.

However, information gathered by Dawn revealed that though the PCB could not set up the Pension Fund, it had decided to pay the pension from its general accounts only to adjust it later by opening separate account for pensions.

According to the scheme, the cricketers who had played upto 10 Test matches will get Rs 15,000 as pension while those with 20 matches to their name will pocket Rs 20,000 and above.

The PCB chairman had also announced similar scheme for national umpires, but has failed to finalise the same so far.