PCB suffers 85% loss in Champions Trophy after splurging INR 869 crore for one home game; players face brutal effect

[rollingstoned]

PCB suffers 85% loss in Champions Trophy after splurging INR 869 crore for one home game; players face brutal effect

 

PCB spent PKR 18 billion (about $58 million) upgrading each of the three venues—Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi. This was 50 per cent more than their budget

 

Pakistan played only one completed game at home during Champions Trophy 2025(AP)

 

Champions Trophy 2025 was the first global cricket tournament held in Pakistan in the last 29 years, marking a significant moment in the sport's history in the country. However, it was nothing short of a financial and logistical failure as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) suffered an 85 per cent loss after spending INR 869 crore for playing just one completed home game during the tournament.

 

 

 

According to a report in The Telegraph, PCB spent PKR 18 billion (about $58 million) upgrading each of the three venues—Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi. This was 50 per cent more than their budget. In addition, they spent $40 million on event preparations. However, they only received $6 million in return as part of the hosting fee and change from ticket sales and sponsorships. This implies that PCB suffered a loss of about $85 million.

 

Not to forget, the Mohammad Rizwan-led side played only one game at home, against New Zealand at the Gadaffi stadium in Lahore. Their next match, against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi, was washed out without even the toss. Two other matches of the remaining eight held in Pakistan also ended in the same way.

Players pay the price

The report further said that the players were made to face the brutal consequences of the 'financial misadventure' as match fees in the national T20 championship have been reduced by 90 per cent and those for reserve player payments by 87.5 per cent. These cricketers, who were once accommodated in five-star hotels, found themselves in budget accommodations while the administrators continued drawing millions of salaries.

Pakistani national daily Dawn reported: "The PCB had recently reduced match fees from ₹40,000 to ₹10,000 without any official announcement…however PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi intervened, rejecting the decision and directing the board's domestic cricket department to reassess the matter. While the PCB has yet to officially disclose the revised amount, sources indicate it has been set at ₹30,000 per match — ₹10,000 less than last year."

[MechEng]

Poor from PCB. The whole purpose of hosting CT in Pakistan was not to bring more cricket viewership back to Pakistan, but a sasta attempt to get back at the BCCI. All sensible sporting bodies have competent managers who are skilled enough to forecast if logistical challenges will come up or not and if holding an ICC tournament is a feasible option or not while factoring in geo-political situation, finances and supply chain.

 

Unfair on Pak players to bear the brunt of their board's ambitious stupidity.

Edited March 17 by MechEng

[Lone Wolf]

They did manage to improve 2 of their major stadiums especially the Lahore one which resembled 80's infrastructure prior to upgradation.

 

Profit wise they may have suffered by hosting CT but they managed to use ICC funding to improve their stadium.

PCB got the better end of the deal here.

 

Now they are hosting PeeEsL in their upgraded stadium.

 

[tapandrun]

Is this the full write-up, if so then its v.poor. Just says found something on pcb mentioned in big news outlet about the author.

Didnt mention anything about what went and why?? , why is stadium cost is added. 

 

But this is the lowest pcb has ever been outside fixing, corruption, drgs related new.

 

The account is bone-dry and team is not doing good either, biggest stars are seen as phonies. 

Showing it to bcci/ind has gone wrong. they made it bcci vs pcb as soon as bcci told they can not come and if possible can they get hybrid.

 

they upgraded stadiums to looks exactly the same as they were earlier, work was done in haste and hence the faults are coming up in construction.

there was a video surfaced of water leaking from roof after 30-40 mins of rains. Do not think these things can be fixed and if there is one issue there will be more issue.

Do not want structural issue in construction it  becomes reoccurring and  precursor to new issue.

 

Icc asked them to  add chairs, screen and some uplift in media, pavilion and guest's area.  They went on to rebuild entire thing just to add 10k in audience capacity with no roof and the outcome looks exactly the same as it was previously. 

 

Could have taken up construction after or before the CT. 

After the team crashing out they behaved as if they are not the host, v.unprofessional behaviour on their part. It was still their event should have celebrated it.

 

Tried opening ceremony twice, one for a face lift of the stadium and other for CT (where no team came). They could have done lot more and lot better.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 17 by tapandrun

[Strangering]

You'd think 3 stadiums' development would have an amortization schedule, right? Basic accounting principles 

 

I think media is just overstating the losses. The stadiums' cost will be paid off over a multi-year schedule. That sort of thing can never be pulled from just one tournament. I'm sure that, they made less in revenue than they'd have expected but they were never going to make $85M. 

[MechEng]

4 hours ago, Strangering said:

You'd think 3 stadiums' development would have an amortization schedule, right? Basic accounting principles 

 

I think media is just overstating the losses. The stadiums' cost will be paid off over a multi-year schedule. That sort of thing can never be pulled from just one tournament. I'm sure that, they made less in revenue than they'd have expected but they were never going to make $85M. 

 

All their fixed and variable expenditures will get amortized in due course of time, but it will still not reflect the beating they had to take when it comes to net margin earned.

 

It cannot be ignored that one of the motives behind hosting CT was to target India - If they tour Pak, make as much cash out of the games played by them as possible, else if they restrict themselves to UAE games create drama about them being bullies of world cricket. It backfired and now they are making players as scapegoats.

[Tillu]

When will the ICC realise that hosting the ICC tournaments outside the Big3 is not feasible. ICC also incurred 20 million dollar losses for hosting the T20 world cup in US and West Indies last year.

 

Hosting Olympics or ICC tournaments will always be loss making ventures if you do not have the necessary infrastructure already developed.

[tapandrun]

34 minutes ago, Tillu said:

When will the ICC realise that hosting the ICC tournaments outside the Big3 is not feasible. ICC also incurred 20 million dollar losses for hosting the T20 world cup in US and West Indies last year.

 

Hosting Olympics or ICC tournaments will always be loss making ventures if you do not have the necessary infrastructure already developed.

t20i wc-24 was a bad move to start with, it was to start and promote cricket in us. How can they prmote something when they have not made the event accessible to most of the public, only certain group of ppl can afford that kind of tkt prices, not general public and why would some1 with no interest or knowledge would go to and event which cost fortune.

 

The promotion is done by giving free stuff, giving nore than ppl paid for, if they wanted to promote they should have done some giveaways like cricket bats, balls in general public. some free tkts to scls and clgs, invite some nba, nfl, starts so that general public can relate to.

 

CT is generally the event icc wants to keep low budget and keep the expenses as low as possible, but pcb got more than ca got for hosting wc.

ICC event team asked for fewer upgrades like big screen, fully chaired sitting area for crowd and some face lift to media centre, pavilion and guest sections.

 

pcb tried to rebuild the entire non-playing to build it exactly same as it was previously. Ifra was there its just full facelift thing pcb came up and icc gave a go ahead.

 

pcb got their stadiums facelift could be a good thing but everything was done in a haste so it can be problematic in future.

 

The report here is not correct they are using construction cost as the factor to show the loss due to the event.   

 

[vvvslaxman]

9 hours ago, Lone Wolf said:

They did manage to improve 2 of their major stadiums especially the Lahore one which resembled 80's infrastructure prior to upgradation.

 

Profit wise they may have suffered by hosting CT but they managed to use ICC funding to improve their stadium.

PCB got the better end of the deal here.

 

Now they are hosting PeeEsL in their upgraded stadium.

 

it still looks likes 80s infrastructure. 

[Tillu]

47 minutes ago, tapandrun said:

t20i wc-24 was a bad move to start with, it was to start and promote cricket in us. How can they prmote something when they have not made the event accessible to most of the public, only certain group of ppl can afford that kind of tkt prices, not general public and why would some1 with no interest or knowledge would go to and event which cost fortune.

 

The promotion is done by giving free stuff, giving nore than ppl paid for, if they wanted to promote they should have done some giveaways like cricket bats, balls in general public. some free tkts to scls and clgs, invite some nba, nfl, starts so that general public can relate to.

 

CT is generally the event icc wants to keep low budget and keep the expenses as low as possible, but pcb got more than ca got for hosting wc.

ICC event team asked for fewer upgrades like big screen, fully chaired sitting area for crowd and some face lift to media centre, pavilion and guest sections.

 

pcb tried to rebuild the entire non-playing to build it exactly same as it was previously. Ifra was there its just full facelift thing pcb came up and icc gave a go ahead.

 

pcb got their stadiums facelift could be a good thing but everything was done in a haste so it can be problematic in future.

 

The report here is not correct they are using construction cost as the factor to show the loss due to the event.   

 

 

Yes stadium renovations and other facilities shouldn't be considered as costs, they should be looked at as long term investments.

[vvvslaxman]

48 minutes ago, tapandrun said:

t20i wc-24 was a bad move to start with, it was to start and promote cricket in us. How can they prmote something when they have not made the event accessible to most of the public, only certain group of ppl can afford that kind of tkt prices, not general public and why would some1 with no interest or knowledge would go to and event which cost fortune.

 

The promotion is done by giving free stuff, giving nore than ppl paid for, if they wanted to promote they should have done some giveaways like cricket bats, balls in general public. some free tkts to scls and clgs, invite some nba, nfl, starts so that general public can relate to.

 

CT is generally the event icc wants to keep low budget and keep the expenses as low as possible, but pcb got more than ca got for hosting wc.

ICC event team asked for fewer upgrades like big screen, fully chaired sitting area for crowd and some face lift to media centre, pavilion and guest sections.

 

pcb tried to rebuild the entire non-playing to build it exactly same as it was previously. Ifra was there its just full facelift thing pcb came up and icc gave a go ahead.

 

pcb got their stadiums facelift could be a good thing but everything was done in a haste so it can be problematic in future.

 

The report here is not correct they are using construction cost as the factor to show the loss due to the event.   

 

TOo much cost cutting patch work. Lot of kickbacks. Someone is going home rich.  I don't think they put the money to good use.

[MechEng]

2 hours ago, tapandrun said:

t20i wc-24 was a bad move to start with, it was to start and promote cricket in us. How can they prmote something when they have not made the event accessible to most of the public, only certain group of ppl can afford that kind of tkt prices, not general public and why would some1 with no interest or knowledge would go to and event which cost fortune.

 

The promotion is done by giving free stuff, giving nore than ppl paid for, if they wanted to promote they should have done some giveaways like cricket bats, balls in general public. some free tkts to scls and clgs, invite some nba, nfl, starts so that general public can relate to.

 

CT is generally the event icc wants to keep low budget and keep the expenses as low as possible, but pcb got more than ca got for hosting wc.

ICC event team asked for fewer upgrades like big screen, fully chaired sitting area for crowd and some face lift to media centre, pavilion and guest sections.

 

pcb tried to rebuild the entire non-playing to build it exactly same as it was previously. Ifra was there its just full facelift thing pcb came up and icc gave a go ahead.

 

pcb got their stadiums facelift could be a good thing but everything was done in a haste so it can be problematic in future.

 

The report here is not correct they are using construction cost as the factor to show the loss due to the event.   

 

 

When European football failed to gain popularity, what makes you think that cricket will gain viewership in the US market?

 

ICC was targeting the Desi tech crowd from West Coast with those kind of ticket prices.

[IndianRenegade]

Nominate jay shah for PM. He is single handedly bankrupting pcb.

[Strangering]

5 hours ago, MechEng said:

 

All their fixed and variable expenditures will get amortized in due course of time, but it will still not reflect the beating they had to take when it comes to net margin earned.

 

It cannot be ignored that one of the motives behind hosting CT was to target India - If they tour Pak, make as much cash out of the games played by them as possible, else if they restrict themselves to UAE games create drama about them being bullies of world cricket. It backfired and now they are making players as scapegoats.

Ya it would be wrong if players are the only ones taking the brunt of budget-balancing. 

 

I definitely believe that CT hosting was financial failure for PCB for many reasons. I was just saying that even a highly successful CT was not going to pay back the entire cost of 3 renovated stadiums. Hence the Media is making up exaggerated stories.

[Serpico]

41 minutes ago, IndianRenegade said:

Nominate jay shah for PM. He is single handedly bankrupting pcb.

Pcb's corrupt officials would have done it regardless. The fact that they spent close to 1000 crores just to renovate three stadiums and they're still not up to mark shows how corrupt they're

[AuxiliA]

Pakistan overall is poor but their elites are super rich n corrupt. Their black economy is huge, plus tons of illicit drug money. They aren't as poor as they look on paper. 

 

I am sure lot of funds for their stadiums would have gone into the pockets of their rulers. 

 

[nevada]

False headline. Stadium renovation was not just for CT. It is a long term investment. 

[Lone Wolf]

47 minutes ago, AuxiliA said:

Pakistan overall is poor but their elites are super rich n corrupt. Their black economy is huge, plus tons of illicit drug money. They aren't as poor as they look on paper. 

 

I am sure lot of funds for their stadiums would have gone into the pockets of their rulers. 

 

Jernail class of both sides is filthy rich.. their kids study abroad & have properties in abroad with citizenships and everything.

That's the only common thing I have found among bureaucracy from both sides.

Chandigarh Import lobby of India is notorious as well.  Cut commission, kickbag wale

[AuxiliA]

43 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

Jernail class of both sides is filthy rich.. their kids study abroad & have properties in abroad with citizenships and everything.

That's the only common thing I have found among bureaucracy from both sides.

Chandigarh Import lobby of India is notorious as well.  Cut commission, kickbag wale

 

 

Glad you brought that up. Had such a lobby been in China they would have faced the firing squad by now. They have been a massive roadblock in the way of creating a local defence industry.

 

They seem more like mouthpieces of BBC/Aljazeera than former Indian army officers. They were against A370 removal and instead advocated removal of AFSPA from NE citing human rights abuses by IA!

 

These b*stards even openly 'celebrated' the accidental death of former CDS Bipin Rawat who was instrumental in dismantling their lobby. 

 

[putrevus]

How is renovation of old stadiums a problem for ICC. 
 

If bhikari PCB  has to depend on ICC charity to even renovate the stadiums then why were they jumping up and down to host the tournament.

 

if PCB officials think ICC is responsible for feeding their corruption and also their salaries then they need to get their heads examined.

Edited March 18 by putrevus