Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has suffered a revenue loss to the tune of USD 90 million in its last media rights deal because of the freezed bilateral cricket ties with India since 2008.
India have played against Pakistan only in ICC tournaments in the last few years due to the diplomatic tension between the two nations. A reliable source said PCB’s last five-year deal, which expired this month, included two home series against India. The broadcasters who signed the contract worth 149 million dollars had a condition that the series would be held against India. “Unfortunately since Pakistan was unable to play the two home series against India as included in the agreement, Ten Sports and PTV the two broadcasters who had taken the rights deducted 90 million dollars of the total sum as per the agreement,” the source said.
The PCB also faced financial disagreements with its last broadcaster over the unscheduled home series against West Indies etc. The source said that the PCB has already started exploring the market to get good money for its international home media rights deal either short or long term.
“The problem is that right now due to the Coronavirus pandemic the situation in the market is bad. In fact the situation for cricket broadcast rights has been poor since last December,” he said. PCB Chairman, Ehsan Mani earlier this week in a podcast had said that the Board was mentally prepared to get bids which would be lower in price than what the Board anticipated. Mani had insisted that although the PCB had suffered losses because of absence of series against India but it can live without playing them.
The India–Pakistan cricket rivalry is one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world. The tense relations between the two nations, laid the foundations for the emergence of an intense sporting rivalry between the two nations who had shared a common cricketing heritage. The two sides first played in 1952, when Pakistan toured India. Test and, later, limited overs series have been played ever since, although a number of planned tours by both sides have been cancelled or aborted due to political factors. (PTI)
