COVID-19: PCB chairman warns of financial fallout if T20 World Cup is cancelled

Ehsan Mani, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has sent a warning of a possible financial fallout if the upcoming Men's T20 World Cup does not go ahead as planned due to the coronavirus.

The tournament is scheduled to be played in October-November this year in Australia but with much of the world in lockdown currently, the fate of the tournament hangs in the balance.

"If the World T20 in Australia, if that gets disrupted then the financial fallout from that will be very big. The distributions they the ICC give to members, many boards, including us will feel the pinch of it," ESPNCricinfo quoted Mani as saying on the PCB podcast.

Mani, who is also chairman of the ICC's Finance and Commercial Affairs committee was indeed referring to the revenue that the ICC distributes to its members.

These payments are made by the ICC regardless of whether there is an ICC tournament in the calendar year and are calculated on the financial model that was agreed upon in June 2017.

However, Mani also clarified that the Pakistan players would not be given any unusual cuts amid the coronavirus.

"Cricketers are the biggest stakeholders in Pakistan cricket, both domestic and international. I want to assure everyone, that their interests will be safeguarded in the best possible way. There would not be any unusual cuts," Mani said in a video posted by the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) official Twitter handle.

"As far as performance-based contracts are concerned, they are not in our domain, they are recommended by our selectors. Staff won't be redundant, but normal changes would take place as we are restructuring PCB," he added.

Mani also stated that all retired cricketers will continue to get their pensions and PCB's main priority is safeguarding players and staff.

"Apart from this, all retired cricketers are getting their pensions and there are no changes in the contracts of the domestic players," he said.

"The main priority is to safeguard the players and staff. Without the staff, the board cannot work and we have nothing without our players," Mani added.

There have been 5,983 cases of coronavirus reported in Pakistan, including 107 deaths, according to Dawn.