PCB to cut down number of staffers

KARACHI - The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is planning to restrict the number of its staffers to less than 300 in a bid to cut down burgeoning costs.

According to a report in the Jang — Pakistan’s mainstream Urdu daily, the board has decided to sack 250 of its employees by the end of this month.

The report said the sacking is being planned as a part of the board’s restructuring process.

Saleem Altaf, the PCB chief operating officer, told Jang that a three-man committee will finalise the recommendations for the process by the end of this week and submit it to Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman.

“We currently have a total of 544 employees in the board and the idea is to cut the expenses of the board. So, we have to lay off some of the staffers,” said Altaf, a former Pakistan test pacer.

The report suggested that the latest PCB move came after the Sports Ministry took a swipe at the PCB management and wrote to the President House that the board is unable to take concrete steps to take Pakistan cricket out of the woods.

Aftab Jilani, the Sports Minister, also stated in his letter to President Asif Zardari — PCB’s chief patron — that in spite of his repeated reminders the PCB management is yet to take any measures to cut down the costs of running national cricket.

Soon after taking over as PCB chairman last fall, Butt fired several PCB employees but was later criticised over the move as most of the sacked staffers belonged to the low-income groups.