PCB approves budget of Rs 18.30 billion for 2025-26 season

The Pakistan Cricket Board, on Thursday, approved a budget of 18.30 billion rupees for the current fiscal year but remained shy of outlining the estimated expenditures and revenues for 2025/26. In the last budget, the PCB's expenses on rebuilding and renovating stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi for the ICC Champions Trophy itself hit nearly 18 billion rupees.

The PCB's Board of Governors met in Lahore to discuss and approve the budget which is estimated at 18.30 billion for the current fiscal year, the PCB said in a release. The board didn't make any mention of how much expenses and revenues it had incurred or generated in the last fiscal year when it hosted two ICC events, the Champions Trophy and also the ICC Women's World Cup qualifying tournament in Lahore.

Without going into the details of the current fiscal year budget, the board release said it had also decided to annually recognize and reward the regional association that demonstrates the best performance in the promotion and development of cricket. It said under this initiative, the best performing region will receive an award each year.

It was also decided that staff performance will be regularly monitored moving forward. The Board Of Governors (BOG) expressed satisfaction over the utilization of the 2024–25 fiscal year budget. In another meeting held on Wednesday in Lahore the PCB declared this year's Pakistan Super League to be a big success despite being held in the same window as the Indian Premier League.

The PSL CEO, Salman Naseer informed the franchise owners and representatives of the title sponsors, broadcasters etc that live streaming views surged from 455 million in PSL 9 to 3.4 billion in PSL X, marking an astonishing 647.25% increase. The members were told that fans in Pakistan watched 48.5 billion cumulative minutes on live streaming platforms, with 511 million views recorded during the playoffs and final alone. PTI