LAHORE: The Board of Governors (BoGs) of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which met here on Friday with Ehsan Mani in the chair approved Rs 7.76 billion operating expenditure budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year with a 10 percent reduction from the 2019-20 budget as part of the PCB's austerity, robust financial management and belt-tightening exercise.

Without compromising and reducing any activities from the 2019-20 activities, the PCB has allocated 71.2 percent of the overall budget for cricket-related activities which includes 25.2 percent for domestic events, 19.3 percent for international cricket, 5.5 percent for women's cricket, 19.7 percent for HBL PSL 2021 and 1.5 percent for Medical and Sport Sciences.

While forecasting shortfall in revenues due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has left the fate of revenues from international events hanging in balance and may also affect PCB's commercial programme, the BoG has agreed to continue investment on infrastructure development by approving a Rs 1.22 billion budget for capital expenditure, a reduction of approximately Rs 800 million from 2019-20.

PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani said "We have followed a strict cost-benefit and value for money policy while preparing this budget taking into consideration the economic situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020