'In loss' PCB approves 1.45 billion rupees budget for 2009-10

Lahore, Nov.8 : The Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) governing board has approved a budget of 1.45 billion rupees for the year 2009-10.

The budget, which was delayed by five months, was approved in a meeting held at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) here. The meeting was chaired by PCB chief Ijaz Butt, The Nation reports.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, PCB's joint Director General Wazir Ali Khoja said the board has suffered huge loss due to the refusal of foreign teams to tour the country citing security reasons.

'There has relatively been decline in the board's resources, all due to the refusal of foreign teams to play in Pakistan and for that problem, the budget includes 830 million rupees interest and 620 million rupees deficit,' Khoja said.

'The current budget is not the final ward and changes are possible according to the situation. If the PCB resources increased, the budget would also increase,' he added.

During the meeting, Director General Javed Miandad also presented the new domestic cricket structure, to which some of the members of the board raised objections.

When asked about the issue, Khoja clarified that the issue would be sorted out soon.

'The members have some reservations on the briefing given by Miandad on domestic structure and for that a three-member committee led by the Director General with Shakeel Sheikh and Dr Mohammad Ali Shah as members has been formed to further deliberate on the subject,' he said.

--ANI