PCB meeting reviews the recently concluded New Zealand tour

The Chairman, Pakistan Cricket Board, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, chaired a high level meeting of the PCB at Rawalpindi. The meeting discussed in detail the many aspects of the recently concluded tour by New Zealand. The issues that came under scrutiny were the management or organization aspects and the financial losses as a result of the abandoned 2nd Test. The meeting concluded that the series was generally well handled in comparison with the tour by England in 2000. However, certain aspects required improvement, especially in the areas of ticket checking and sales. The Chairman approved the payment of match fee to the players at the rate of 50% of normal. This was to compensate the players, despite a total loss of revenue from the 2nd Test.

The Chairman and the meeting expressed the satisfaction on the handling of the crises in Karachi on the day of the blast. Director, PCB briefed the meeting. He said, "PCB staff was available on that day as required by me. We were in close contact with the Match Referee, the umpires and the team management. All these were given appropriate and personal attention and send off. The visitors went away satisfied on what the PCB did for them".

The meeting was informed that the Director had decided that no squad member, New Zealand or Pakistani was to be asked to return their daily allowances on this day. All payments were to be adjusted in their respective account later. However, the New Zealand Manager collected their DAs (given in Pak Rupees) and returned it to the organizers, saying that since they were leaving for home immediately they didn't require the Pakistani currency. The meeting appreciated this.

The other points in the agenda included:
- A review of the progress of the Development Programme. The majority of the projects will be completed by mid-July.
- Approval of the start of the Regional Academies at four centers, viz, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Muridke and Karachi was given. Each Academy will have upto 25 boys.
- The National Academy to be set up at Lahore.
- All academies to start from 1st June; the regional academies would remain functional for 3 months while the National Academy would be a round the year affair.
- Quite a few measures were considered to reduce expenditure in view of the losses already suffered by the Pakistan Cricket Board due to cancelled and truncated tours, also keeping in mind the losses likely to be incurred in the forthcoming period.

Khalid Butt
Media Manager
May 13, 2002