Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Mohammad Khan gave a Mike Brearley lecture here at Lord's this morning to MCC's World Cricket Committee, acquainting its distinguished members with contemporary issues and challenges being faced by Pakistan Cricket.
Former England captain Mike Brearley is the chairman of the MCC's prestigious World Cricket Committee, and the lecture was attended by him and three other former captains, Australia's Ricky Ponting, India's Sourav Ganguly and Pakistan's Ramiz Raja. Other prominent members of the committee present were former Australian wicket-keeper Rodney Marsh.
After the lecture, the PCB Chairman witnessed Team Pakistan's training session ahead of the first Test at Lord's, which commences on July 14, and apprised himself of the situation with manager Intikhab Alam giving him a briefing, a PCB spokesman said. Talking about the challenges being faced by Pakistan Cricket, Shaharyar Khan presented three as the foremost. First, Pakistan being the only nation in the cricketing world which has been forced to host its home matches abroad. And, that too, in one of the most expensive destinations in the world, the United Arab Emirates!
This, he said, was not only hampering Pakistan's progress in pure cricketing terms, but also was a serious drain on the resources generated by Pakistan Cricket Board. Second, the India issue: where the BCCI has committed to playing bilateral series with Pakistan but is disallowed to meet its obligation by the Indian government now for nearly a decade. "This deprives Pakistan of a sizable and critical revenue stream. Needless to say that it hurts Pakistan cricket", said Shaharyar Khan.
Third, this is an indisputable fact, that despite so many obstacles owing to Pakistan Cricket Board's endeavours the Board had remained solvent. That said, he emphasised on the point that due to financial constraints stemming from the first two hurdles, PCB was unable to invest in development of cricket - first class, youth and further developing women's cricket as well as its depleted infrastructure.
There was an animated session following Chairman PCB's talk, in which the distinguished members of the MCC's World Cricket Committee asked probing questions. Pakistan are currently touring England and Chairman PCB described his pleasure watching Team Pakistan in their tour match at Hove against Sussex; he has also been to meet the Women's and Pakistan 'A' squad during this past week.
Prior to this, Shaharyar Khan had briefed the recent ICC Conference in Edinburgh, outlining the huge disadvantages Pakistan currently faces in playing home matches outside of the country. His presentation had argued for and anticipated a fairer structure and system of international cricket finance to compensate Pakistan for the costs and lack of revenue it faces by playing home matches overseas.
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