Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday wrote a letter to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) stating that the Rs.10 million loan given by the country’s cricketing body cannot be waived off as a grant. Three days ago, PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan said in a press conference that the PHF wanted to write-off the loan given in the year 2000 and they had discussed the matter during a Board of Governors’ (BoG) meeting and asked the Inter Provincial Coordination Ministry for advice. However, now the cricket board has decided it cannot write off the loan as grant-in-aid. “The matter was deliberated in detail in a BoG meeting held in Lahore on November 8, and it was decided that the loan cannot be written-off as grant-in-aid,” said the PCB in the letter. Further, the PCB
has urged the PHF officials to hold talks on the method and timelines for repayment of the loan.

Meanwhile, PHF secretary general Shahbaz Ahmad Senior told media that the federation would look into the matter after concluding current meetings in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Last month, the PCB had the asked PHF to return the loan that it gave to the latter under the chairmanship of General (r) Tauqir Zia. The amount was given to the hockey team which was due to participate in the Sydney Olympics in the aforementioned year. However, the PCB later revealed that it was a loan and the PHF would have to return it. Officials from both sides first met to resolve the issue on March 10, 2011 at the National Cricket Academy where it was mutually agreed that hockey federation would return this amount in installments. Although the number of installments was not agreed at that time, but the PCB sent another letter on January 10, 2012 in which they suggested that there should be at least 10 installments to clear this amount. “We request the PCB to declare this loan of Rs10 million as a grant like Bangladesh, where government has announced a
policy which pushed the Bangladesh Cricket Board to give 5 percent of their income to the national game,” PHF secretary Shahbaz Senior previously told media.