Karachi:
Pakistan cricket is once again in trouble and this time, after a poor performance in the Champions Trophy, sponsoring for the national team can also become a challenge for the ruling. Traditional rival India defeated Pakistan by six wickets in Dubai on Sunday, leading to the hosts to get out of the tournament. A day before losing to India, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials were full of confidence after seeing the brilliant crowd of people at the Gaddafi Stadium for the Australia-England match.

“This is a big challenge in remaining matches”

A board official said, ‘It was an encouraging experience to see people’s response and enjoying the match beyond Pakistan. But now the challenge is to ensure that the crowd of spectators continued for the remaining matches in Pakistan because we are hosting such a big tournament after 29 years. After the 1996 World Cup, the Champions Trophy of eight teams in Pakistan is the first tournament of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and it was expected that the domestic team would perform well.

New Zealand’s victory would mean …

New Zealand’s victory on Monday means that both Bangladesh and Pakistan are out of the tournament. A reliable source of the board’s commercial unit said that even if Pakistan does not play in the semi -finals, PCB will not suffer a big blow financially because only gate slip and other sources of ground income will be affected, but the distressed team will be affected. ‘Brand Value’ is going to affect.

“This is very big”

He said, ‘We are guaranteed to get our share in ICC revenue including host fees, ticket sales, but there are other issues such as the end of interest in this big tournament and showing half -filled stadiums by the broadcaster etc. And the biggest concern is that despite the craze for cricket here, it will not be easy to sell Pakistan cricket as a brand in future.