Cricket Special Report: Home away from home earned Pakistan Cricket Board about $3 million profit
The ongoing “Home series” of Pakistan against Australia on England’s soil has so far been quite profitable for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The series against Australia has been anticipated to earn a profit of about $ 3 million. The board is also expecting $ 3.7 million from their matches against England.
The home series of Pakistan, that includes a T20 and a Test series, has been sponsored by the Australian Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC). The two match T20 series has been concluded with Pakistan winning the series 2-0, while the second match of the 2-match Test series is underway at Headingley. Australia is leading the series by 1-0.
The deteriorating Law and order situation in Pakistan has forced the national team play its home series at some neutral venues. Since the militant attacks on Sri Lankan team in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 (UAE). The security issues have deprived the country of two mega events of the International cricket, the Champions Trophy and next year’s Cricket World Cup.
Sources have revealed that initially, looking at the forecasted revenues, the Pakistan cricket board was a bit reluctant in staging its home series at neutral English venues but now the board is expecting profits higher than what was estimated by the financial experts of the board.
As per agreement signed between the Wales and English Cricket Board (ECB) and Pakistan Cricket board, ECB has been given the rights of seeking fee bids for the matches of “Spirit of Cricket series”. In return, the ECB was made bound to pay PCB at least 1.9 million pounds for the series between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board.
Under the agreement the revenues from these four matches- two T20 internationals and two Test matches – will be equally divided between the two boards, PCB and ECB, given that the equally split amount should not be less than 1.9 million pounds.
A PCB official said that the “Spirit of Cricket series” turned out to be profiting for Pakistan. With the series reaching its end - just two days remaining - the revenues generated by the series have been very good and encouraging.
The ticket revenues from the matches at neutral venues will go to the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) as PCB has sold the rights of hosting the matches to MCC. The chief executive of MCC http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Keith-Bradshaw-c70580 revealed that the ticket sales were quite encouraging and exceeded the hopes. The successful marketing of the Lord’s Test over a number of months before the match resulted in more than 43,000 pre-sold tickets for the first 4 days of the match. In addition, the actual audience was much more than this figure. The two T20 international at Edgbaston caught a healthy number of spectators, about 25,000 on two days.
Besides the on-going test series against Australia, PCB is expecting some good revenues from the upcoming series against the hosts that kicks off from 29th July. The board has estimated a profit of about 3.7 million dollars from the four test matches against England.
During Pakistan’s 2006 tour of England, the Oval test was forfeited by the visitors owing to the unpleasant incident of ball tempering. However, this time Pakistan Cricket Board will compensate that forfeited Oval test by playing a free of cost T20 international against England. Besides the $ 3.6 million participation fee, the matches will give a full and final defrayal of £ 68,635 to the PCB.
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