Pakistan's new public crisis
Saad Sayeed reports on a summer of allegations and resignations at the PCB
Saad Sayeed reports on a summer of allegations and resignations at the PCB
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The letter, addressed to PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan, only became public in August - but its contents have helped to fuel a new, very public crisis at the top of the game in Pakistan.
"Transparency, financial probity and credibility do not appear to have been observed in the conduct of most of PCB affairs since assumption of office by you," wrote Naeem. Since the leaking of the letter, the PCB has lost its chief executive, Rameez Raja - who is one of those accused in the documents - and seen several other high-profile resignations including development manager Irfan Mirza and media manager Samiul Hasan.
Rameez, who resigned to concentrate on his broadcasting work, denies any wrongdoing. He has said that he will take Naeem, and others, to court over the matter, once an independent audit of the PCB's handling of the spring 2004 series with India is completed.
The fact that the PCB is run in a generally unaccountable way is hardly news. Naeem's opponents, in addition, claim that his allegations are laced with ulterior motives. He was known to be unhappy over match ticket allocations during the India series, as well as a number of other issues.
Even so, the charges are serious. Naeem alleges a lack of transparency, pointing to the hiring of unnecessary outside consultants for 7,000 rupees [£65] an hour plus a daily allowance for board, lodging and travel. One is said to have received a total of Rs2m [£19,000] from the board, even though the PCB already had its own "regular and competent legal advisor".
This is only one of the many questionable contracts handed out by the board, says Naeem. The document also casts suspicion over the purchase of stadium chairs, mobile ticketing booths, ticket sales, lunch contracts and food stalls. And then comes the charge that Pakistan's Allied Bank did not transfer $3million of PCB funds deposited with them, despite the instructions of the PCB chairman. Referring to Ramiz Raja, Naeem's letter said: "ABL would not have taken such a daring step if one of its paid employees was not the chief executive of PCB."
According to former chief executive, director and treasurer, Arif Abbasi, the cause of these kind of accusations - proven or not - is the PCB's ad hoc set-up. "Right now the board chairman is in control unchecked," he says. "There is no general body meeting, no internal audits, no checks and balances."
Under the current structure, the board's day-to-day affairs - earnings, contracts, legality - remain confidential. An accountable, constitutional system would mean less secrecy and less opportunity for transgression - and suspicion of transgression.
Abbasi, for one, would welcome reform along those lines. "Right now, the board's structure is actually illegal," he says. "The PCB is actually a company registered with the SECP [Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan] and they are supposed to have shareholders meetings and general body meetings as per the constitution."
Considering the board has been run under this structure for eight years now and each new chairman has promised transparency but failed to deliver, each act passed by the board is in itself illegal, suggests Abbasi. "Shaharyar is not even willing to face me," he says. "We have been friends for a long time but since he took over he has been avoiding me."
Whether corruption exists in the PCB is unknown. Such accusations have crept up in the past, both against the board and the cricket team itself. Some players have been punished but no board official has ever been the subject of an official inquiry.
But, while specific allegations of misdemeanours are serious, it is the whole management culture of the PCB that remains the real issue. As long as the Pakistan board continues to be governed by an undemocratic body, much like the country itself, financial probity and transparency are likely to be issues that haunt this administration and the ones that follow.
This article was first published in the November issue of The Wisden Cricketer.
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