Pakistan Cricket Board's $43 Million Revenue and Budget

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spends about $43 million on national and international cricket every year, according to media reports. It receives about $16.5 million a year share from the International Cricket Council (ICC) as part of the new revenue sharing model while the rest comes from Pakistan Super League (PSL) and multiple bilateral cricket series with other ICC member nations. PCB could earn significantly more if India, with its huge media market, agrees to honor its prior commitments to play bilateral series with Pakistan. PCB has threatened to sue BCCI to recover $200 million in lost revenue since 2007.

ICC Revenue Sharing:

Under a new deal announced by the International Cricket Club (ICC) after its recent board meeting in Dubai, Pakistan's PCB will receive $132 million from 2015 through 2023. India's BCCI will receive $293 million across the eight-year cycle, the ECB $143 million, Zimbabwe Cricket $94 million and the remaining seven Full Members $132 million each. Associate Members will receive total combined funding of $280 million, according to ESPN sports network.

Source: ESPN

The new, more equitable revenue sharing model will replace the "Big Three" financial model drawn up by the boards of India, England and Australia that allocated much larger revenue share to them.

As expected India is not happy with the reduction in its share of the ICC revenue to $ 293 million. While the new distribution model is not a complete rollback to the equal funding from ICC events that Full Members like Pakistan used to receive, it is considerably lower than the $440 million the BCCI stood to earn under the Big Three model. The associate members of ICC would be the biggest losers if the BCCI demand for $440 million was accepted.

India-Pakistan Series:

India, with its massive media market, generates significantly more revenue that any other national cricket team and it has not played a full bilateral series with Pakistan since 2007. PCB had signed an MoU with the BCCI officials in 2014 on the sidelines of an ICC meeting. Under the MoU, Pakistan and India were to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023 but India so far has refused to honor its commitment saying that the Modi government has not given it permission for bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan.

The BCCI has refused even to play Pakistan on neutral venues including Sri Lanka. PCB claims it has lost nearly $200 million because of India's failure to deliver. BCCI has also rejected ICC chief Shashank Manohar's offer of additional $100 million to Pakistan to cover its losses, according to India Today.  PCB is now threatening to sue BCCI to recover its losses.

Pakistan Super League: 

Pakistan Super League has become a significant source of revenue for PCB since its launch in 2016. The auction of the teams in 2016 generated $18.6 million for PCB in 2016, according to media reports.  This year, PCB earned a profit of $2.6 million net after all the expenses of PSL's second season.

PCB Plans: 

PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan said PCB plans to use the money for new cricket academies across the nation and to set up cricket programs at schools and universities and to sponsor cricket clubs.  In addition, sports facilities like cricket pitches and grounds will be improved across the country.

Summary:

Pakistan Cricket Board seems to be achieving self-sufficiency and the wherewithal to fund the sport of cricket in Pakistan better than ever before. In addition to the money from the ICC revenue sharing, PCB is also getting a new revenue stream from the PSL to help meet its needs. It's important that the PCB follows through on its plans to support cricket programs at schools and universities and cricket clubs, and to improve sports facilities in the country.

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ICC World Cup 2015: Australia's Discipline; Pakistan's Disappointment

ألم الإنضباط هو شيء مثل الألم من خيبة الأمل    

"The pain of discipline is nothing  like the pain of disappointment"

What is the most plausible explanation for the fact that Australian national cricket team is enjoying the thrill of victory while its rivals are suffering the agony of defeat? It can be found tattooed in Arabic on Australian Captain Michael Clarke's raised arm holding the ICC World Cup 2015. It's an Arabic proverb that translates as follows: The pain of discipline is nothing like the pain of disappointment. 

Discipline is what distinguished Australia from its competitors in all departments during ICC World Cup 2015: Batting, Bowling and Fielding. And discipline doesn't come easy. It takes a lot of hard work to develop and maintain the discipline necessary to effectively compete and win. 

There were many flashes of brilliance and passion in Pakistani cricketers' performance at the World Cup. In fact, cricket greats like Lara, Ponting and Tendulkar all agree that Pakistani bowler Wahab Riaz's fierce bowling spell against Australian batsman Shane Watson was the most memorable part of the tournament.  But these flashes of brilliance were overshadowed by the lack of discipline by Pakistani fielders and poor shots played by Pakistani batsmen. 

Pakistanis' lack of discipline was obvious in several ways: Fielders dropped crucial catches or failed to stop boundaries; Batsmen selected poor shots to lose wickets at critical moments. It all added up to a big loss to Australia in the quarter final. Other South Asian teams seemed to suffer from the same lack of discipline when playing against Australia. 

Pakistanis' poor discipline on display at the World Cup is not limited to just cricket matches; it seems to be pervasive in almost all spheres of life Pakistan, a nation whose founder Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah frequently emphasized the importance of "Unity, Faith and Discipline". 

All of the talk of various TV talking heads, commentators and pundits on the causes of Pakistan's failures will do little to help Pakistan succeed, be it in sports or education or economy or any other area. What is needed is the return to the basics of "Unity, Faith and Discipline". Unity of purpose; faith in yourselves as individuals and as a nation; and discipline in all your pursuits. 

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ICC Big 3: Will Australia, England and India Doom Cricket?

Australia, England and India, the three biggest revenue producing nations in the world of cricket, are seeking to remodel International Cricket Council (ICC) along the lines of the UN Security Council. They are making a naked bid to get more money and power for themselves at the expense of the cricket boards of the rest of the ICC member nations including Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe.

The "Big 3" Proposal:

The proposals, written by the ICC's Finance, Commercial Affairs (FCA) committee and leaked to the media last week, calls for the formation of a four-person executive committee, on which the representative of boards of Australia, England and India would be guaranteed a seat. Only one representative from the rest of the cricketing nations combined would be selected by the three boards annually.

Would this proposal, if adopted as is, strengthen the sport of cricket? Or would it spell doom for it? Its proponents argue that the new structure would improve governance of world cricket. Cricket Australia Chairman Wally Edwards said " its approach internationally is consistent with its approach at home where we have made significant strides improving the governance of Australian cricket".

The Debate on "Big 3":

Opponents such as former Indian Premier League boss Lali Modi call it "a nail in the coffin for world game". Here are some excepts of what Modi told Hindustan Times:

“It’s a cartel, an unholy trinity and it threatens the future of the game. I’m serious. How can it possibly be good for the other Test playing nations and the associate members that these three line their own pockets. It is a scandal and it must be stopped. “They are going to kill cricket with these proposals. Great, India and England and Australia can play themselves to their heart’s content but they have put every other nation on the bread line.”

“They are saying they should have the power because they can bring greater stability but they don’t explain how they are going to do it. This is cloak and dagger stuff. Where’s the transparency? And then they say that each member will be given revenue share in line with the growth of the ICC. They are just lining their pockets".

 “You can read it yourself. It is clear in black and white. Section one, page three, point E and I’ll quote it ‘Ensuring a fair distribution of revenues, recognizing the contribution of each member to the ICC both on and off the field’. The key word there is ‘contribution’. Well, of course Indian ‘contribute’ more in terms of money than Zimbabwe. But this is totalitarian. This is about the rich getting richer and screw the rest".

“Again, a little further down. Same section, same page but point f. ‘The need to streamline bilateral cricket arrangements and ensure the on-going relevance of all these matches to ICC events and the viability of cricket in all relevant markets’. Look, we all know what streamline means in this context. It’s reducing or getting rid all together.”

Successful NFL Model:

The world's most successful sports franchise today is the National Football League (NFL) in the United States. It treats all of its 32 member teams equally with equal vote in decision making. Over 70% of its revenue is shared equally among its member teams.

NFL has a highly lucrative business because of the extraordinary popularity of football in the United States. Over nine years, starting in 2014, CBS, Fox and NBC will together will pay an average of about $3 billion a year, more than 50 percent higher than their prior deals, according to a report in New York Times. Altogether, the four networks, in addition to DirecTV, which pays $1 billion a year for its Sunday Ticket satellite package, will pay the N.F.L. more annually in TV rights than any sports league has ever been paid.

Economics of Sports:

Simon Rottenberg, an economist at University of Chicago, published what is considered as the first significant paper on the subject of the economics of sport, "The Baseball Players' Labor Market" in 1956. He stressed the importance to sporting competition of uncertainty of outcome and distribution of talent: "The nature of the industry is such that competitors must be of approximately equal ‘size’ if any are to be successful; this seems to be a unique attribute of professional competitive sports." This ‘invariance principle’ was because a league in which the strong simply soaked up all the talent would defeat itself.

Summary: 

The naked power grab by cricket boards of Australia, England and India is indeed an "Unholy Trinity". It defies the basic economics of sports as described by University of Chicago economist Simon Rottenberg. It results in unequal competition by weakening the majority of the national cricket teams by starving them of needed revenues to train, promote and reward the best and the brightest players.  It will badly hurt international cricket. PCB and other cricket boards should strongly oppose it.

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Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzak and Kamran Akmal do the trick! Great Boost for Pakistani nation in difficult times!!

Terrific bowling by Razzak, Umar, Afridi and Amir restricted SL to 138/6, followed by great innings by Afridi, Akmal, Malik to achieve well deserved win after good, hard hard work.

Particularly impressive was the way Pakistani bowlers shook up Sri Lanka's batting order with early quick wickets, particularly dismissing dangerous Dilshan in the first over. Then Pakistan's batsmen played comfortably against Sri Lanka's powerful bowling attack, losing only two wickets to score 139 runs in 18.4 overs.

Pakistan's rise from underdogs to champions is an extraordinary display for a team that had to beat Netherlands by a huge margin to even stay in the event during the group stages. However, Pakistanis have peaked at the right time and couldn't have produced a more complete performance for a final. Pakistan fell five runs short two years ago at Johannesburg when they lost to India, but this time there was no mistake.

While this win is not likely to bring international cricket to Pakistan's soil any time soon, it will still provide great encouragement to budding cricket talent in Pakistan to pursue their dreams. It will also be a great morale booster for a nation under siege from the ongoing insurgency in the north west and its devastating effects in the major cities and towns.

Final Score Pakistan 139/2 in 18.4 overs.
Sri Lanka 138/6 in 20 overs.

Here's a video clip showing Pakistan's devastating bowling attack:



Here's a video clip of Pakistan's batting start:



Here's the grand finale by Afridi:



Here's a video clip of the celebration in Islamabad:



Here's a video commentary from India analyzing Pakistan's T20 Win:

Pakistan in ICC World T20 Final 2009

Brilliant all-round performance by Shahid Afridi has taken Pakistan into the ICC World 2020 Finals in England.

Afridi scored an impressive half-century and followed that up by bowling beautifully to claim 2 important SA wickets for just 16 runs.

This came as a huge disappointment to South African team that played well and remained unbeaten in the tournament until the semi-finals with Pakistan.

The powrful South African side were favorites going in to the semi-final and their bowlers bowled well to restrict Pakistan to 149 when, at one stage a total of 170 seemed on the cards. With the exception of Jacques Kallis, though, their batsmen failed to give the chase any sort of direction. They were suffocated by Afridi and the offspinner Saeed Ajmal and their failure to score enough runs during the middle overs left them with too much to do against the pinpoint accuracy of Umar Gul's yorkers.

Afridi, high on confidence after his breezing half century , came into the attack in the seventh over but was immediately driven by Herschelle Gibbs to the cover boundary. That was as bad as his evening got. He bounced back, bowling Herschelle Gibbs with a straight and quick delivery and, an over later, he got AB de Villiers the same way. South Africa were 50 for 3 and struggling.

Pakistan's early dominance was due to Akmal, who was intent on smashing the ball from the start. He cut Dale Steyn twice for four in the first over and lofted him cleanly over long-off in the third. In between, he crashed Wayne Parnell to the midwicket boundary and raced to 23 off 11 balls before top-edging a pull off Steyn to mid-on.

Final Scores: Pakistan 149/4
South Africa 142/5

Now on the finals against Sri Lanka or West Indies Sunday June 21, 2009 at Lords.

This is rare good news for Pakistani cricket fans in particular, and Pakistanis in general, amidst a constant stream of bad news. Hope it helps our national psyche and makes us all feel better as a nation.

If Afridi, Akmal and Gul continue their form, I am confident Pakistanis can beat any team in the final…be it Lankans or Windies.


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