Due to extravagant expenditure on the construction of a pop-up stadium in New York which hosted T20 World Cup games last month, it is reported that two top officials of International Cricket Council (ICC) have resigned recently; thus, overshadowing the forthcoming ICC Annual Conference in Colombo this week as the apex body meets to deliberate on its budget for hosting Pakistan’s ICC Champions Trophy next year.
The ICC calendar will witness the return of the Champions Trophy after eight years and its budget will be up for endorsement at the conference. The tournament is set to run from February 19th through March 9th.
According to Cricbuzz report, “In June Ankur Khanna CFO of ICC was in Lahore working with Javed Murtuza CFO PCB drew up the finances for an eight-teams Champions Trophy.”
Among Jay Shah who is BoC secretary chairs F & CA, an ICC committee that oversees finance and commercial affairs, while reviewing such budgetary proposals which are then adopted by the Board.
The three cities in Pakistan indicated in the budget papers as being earmarked for hosting this event are Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi. Nevertheless, whether India plays in Pakistan remains uncertain considering BCCI and Indian Government who have shown no interest of sending their cricketers there due to political strains between Islamabad and Delhi.
India refused to go to Pakistan during Asia Cup last year turning it into a multi-venue tournament and all Indian matches were held in Sri Lanka. Similarly, BCCI seems inclined towards adopting this model for champions trophy as well. This will however be finalized by ICC.
Nonetheless, at this year’s ICC Annual Conference scheduled for Friday in Colombo could be dominated by issues relating to overspending allegations against setting up temporary Nassau County International Cricket Stadium of New York where eight T20 World Cup matches were played last month.
After New York’s final match was over everything was packed away.
Another Cricbuzz report reveals that “Pankaj Khimji, one of the directors, has called for a forensic audit of expenses incurred during the construction of pop-up stadium in New York that was disassembled after games were done there.”
