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The shocking discovery is that the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has provided funding to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), which has profited from the national.
The News claims that the PSB awarded the PCB an incredible Rs205 million, and the PCB subsequently divided the funds among the 2017 Champions Trophy winning squad.
The shocking part is that the money the cricket organisation received was intended to support the growth of Olympic sports in the nation.
The financially strapped PCB has long maintained that it is not accountable to the government because it has never collected any money from the national coffers. Representatives from the PCB have made this argument repeatedly in Senate and National Assembly committee sessions.
Also Read: PCB Braces for Mickey Arthur’s Exit in the Near Future
However, The News discovered that instead of taking money out of the PCB’s coffers, Rs205 million was given to the Champions Trophy-winning squad from the PSB’s coffers. Since the money was intended for the cricket players, there was no prohibition against collecting the prize money from the board’s coffers; nonetheless, the Olympic sports of the nation were forced to take the loss when the PSB was requested to release the funds in their place.
“The documents submitted with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by the PSB reveal that a hefty amount of Rs205 million was drawn from the PSB’s kitty for cricketers. The PCB is one of the richest organisations in the country and as such can easily spend and contribute to cricketers’ benefit in a big way.
“The Olympic sports hardly get any grant from the government. It was unjust to deduct the PSB’s amount meant for Olympic sports for the cricketers’ benefit. The PCB is there to look after the cricketers and there is no one except the government to contribute to other sportsmen’s cause as they are preparing for the national and international events,” an official from the sports federations said.
He contemplated that Rs205 million was deducted from the amount meant for the Olympic games athletes at a time when the 12th South Asian Games scheduled in Nepal were just around the corner.
“It was really unjust to pull out the amount for cricketers from the sports budget meant for other sports. The PCB should have come forward and given the prize money to the Champions Trophy-winning team on its own instead of taking the money out of the PSB’s kitty.
“The prime minister is the patron-in-chief of the PCB and has every right to divert some of the amount for cricketers’ benefit or award prize money to them. Then why was the amount taken out from the PSB kitty. The PSB has never supported the federations in a big way. The hefty amount of Rs680 million it received as a special grant should have been diverted entirely to the Olympic sports,” the federation official added.
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