Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi has finally revealed the true financial cost that the board will have to bear if it skips the 2023 Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup.
The 74-year-old has confirmed that all options are being considered following India’s constant refusal to send a team to Pakistan for the Asia Cup including skipping both tournaments as a protest.
However, the ICC-sanctioned tournaments are a great source of cash flow for participating teams and skipping them can bring other sanctions from cricket’s governing body as well. And for the first time, Mr Sethi revealed that boycotting the two tournaments will cost Pakistan around 1 billion PKR.
It is likely that such a situation will not come to pass and that ICC will be able to find a working solution that is amicable for both countries considering Pakistan vs India matches remain some of the most lucrative games in the history of sports.
Najam Sethi went on to clarify why PCB was so confident of overcoming the financial loss by skipping the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup and the head of the Normalisation Committee thanked PSL for it.
According to him, PSL’s success this year has given PCB leverage in their threat of doing without the two tournaments and dealing with the consequences that follow.
The 2023 Asia Cup is slated to be held in September this year before the ODI World Cup takes place in India the following month.