Pakistan get above-expectation monetary gains from ICC World Cup 2019 despite poor show

Though Pakistan failed to impress in the ICC World Cup in England and Wales last year, their cricket board received a whopping 1.15 billion Pakistan Rupees (USD 7 million) as the share of their profit from the showpiece event. The amount was 14 per cent more than that estimated one and it would certainly make the country’s cricket administrators happy. On the ground, however, the Men in Green failed to make the semi-finals despite a late surge.

According to Cricket Pakistan that reported about the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) monetary gains, the reason for the profit was credited to the rising rate of the USD. The PCB receives around nine to 10 million USD from the ICC. The revenues are distributed among the member nations based on their shares.

Pakistan’s late surge was not enough to take them to semi-finals

Pakistan had a disastrous start to their campaign as they lost to England before the tournament, to Afghanistan in a warm-up game and then to the West Indies in the first match of the tournament. Sarfaraz Ahmed’s side came back strongly to beat England in the next game but lost to Australia and arch-rivals India thereafter.

As they faced a massive backlash, Pakistan made a desperate effort to make the last four by beating South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan to get into the top four. But England’s win over India and New Zealand dashed their hopes even after they signed off in style by hammering Bangladesh in their final game.

Pakistan finished on same points with New Zealand, who finished fourth and made the semifinals but crashed out because of an inferior run-rate. After their winning the Champions Trophy in England in 2017, the supporters hoped that Pakistan would repeat the same in the World Cup but it was not to be.

The results saw a complete overhauling of the national set-up with captain Sarfaraz and head coach Mickey Arthur along with some other coaches losing their jobs. Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq stepped down and was replaced by Misbah-ul-Haq who took charge as the chief selector-cum-head coach.

The PCB though did not achieve revenues on expected lines in the limited-over series against Sri Lanka at home last year. Though the series was dubbed historic as it marked the return of cricket to Pakistan after a long time, low attendance and loss of a game because of rain hit the final revenue figures. Earlier, the PCB presented its accounts after every four months but the new management has started doing it every month.

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