KARACHI: A super show in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 has made the Men in Green a millionaire cricket team.Ijaz Butt The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been struggling with monetary problems in the last three or four years due to international cricket scarcity in the country but a brilliant performance by Shahid Khan Afridi and his men seems to have pushed back all the financial pressures Nobody had fancied Pakistan playing semi-final at the start of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 but Shahid Afridi led from the front and inspired the team to play semi-final at Mohali. Unfortunately, Pakistan lost to India, who eventually won the title, but their great run of victories have earned them at least one million and fifty thousand US dollars (1,050,000 USD)Sources told The Sports Encounter that the five victories in the group stage of the tournament 300,000 US dollars while the reward for making it to the semi-final stood at 750,000 US dollars.
During the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Pakistan played a total of eight matches, winning six of them, which also included victories over giants Australia and runners-up Sri Lanka.The International Cricket Council (ICC) will hand over the money to the Pakistan Cricket Board which will distribute it among the players as well as team officials.This is not all! Pakistani cricketers are also expected to bag huge cash prizes by the PCB and top government officials for making national anthem heard on Indian soil as Punjab Chief Minister has already taken the lead by announcing Rs0.5 million for each cricketer who took part in the mega event.
The PCB will also get from the sports governing body another 8 million US dollars for being co-hosts.At the end of the day, the nation is happy on Pakistan cricket team’s performance in the ICC Cricket World Cup while the cricket board is also excited by the fact that its monetary woes will go away, for the time being.
