Low fee may see PCB pull out

Not impressed with the remuneration offered to their players, the Pakistan Cricket Board is having second thoughts on playing...

Not impressed with the remuneration offered to their players, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is having second thoughts on playing a three-match one-day series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi next month. Well-informed sources in the Board said Pakistan had given their confirmation for the series slated from May 9, but they were being paid just $ 500,000 as appearance fee by the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council.

“The $ 500,000 is much lower than teams are normally paid for such off-shore tournaments which are not part of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Future Tours Programme,” one source said.

He said normally organisers pay between $ 750,000 and $ 800,000 for such off-shore events.

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“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 the PCB should agree to a much lesser sum is a mystery,” the source said.

He said the ADCC was facing financial problems and had with much difficulty managed to schedule 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 installment of his payment,” the source said.

“The information we have is this individual had brought the rights of the series for an undisclosed sum. But he has already defaulted on his first installment payment. To make matters worse no channel has shown interest in telecasting the series because it is being held so soon after the World Cup and India are not part of the event,” the source said.

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The source clarified that whether Sri Lanka win the World Cup final on April 28 will not have any bearing on the commercial viability of the series.

“It will not make any difference because only India have the drawing power for advertisers and sponsors because of their large consumer market.”

The sources were also unaware of whether the ADCC would be deducting expenses from the appearance fees of the two teams or it would be a separate issue.

The PCB has already announced 39 probables for the series and team would be finalised on May 6.