Media Condemns PCB’s Decision to Block Coverage of Awards Ceremony

It seems as if PCB enjoys being in the headlines for their controversial decisions. After the Younis  Khan and Shahid Afridi’s controversy dominating the headlines, PCB’s decision of awarding broadcasting rights of the Annual Awards Ceremony to a single private sports TV channel – Geo Super – sparked controversy.

It is surprising that a private Sports channel was preferred over state owned sports channel – PTV Sports – for the broadcasting rights. This allows the rest of the media to source content from the state owned channel and telecast clips from the original content.

Almost all TV news channels bashed and protested against the PCB for its biased decision of awarding broadcasting rights of the awards ceremony to a private sports TV channel.

The board is trying to improve the country’s image by holding the Independence Cup. The timing of the awards ceremony was also set such that foreign officials and players could attend it. However, with the broadcast limitation, the PCB did the complete opposite and prevented media from covering the event.

Former cricketers have also shown their concerns over the issue and have asked the board to explain why it made such a ludicrous decision.

Chairman PCB Najam Sethi was a political analyst at Geo News but he quit the channel a few months ago after he was elected as the head of the PCB.  Since taking over the charge of Chairman PCB Najam Sethi has been accused of favouring Geo TV.

The first time a similar incident was noticed was back in 2014 when broadcasting rights for Pakistan’s two home series – against South Africa and Sri Lanka in UAE- were awarded to two private sports channels – Ten Sports and Geo Super – superseding state owned PTV Sports. There were also allegations on Najam Sethi of trying to sell PSL broadcasting rights to Geo Super.

It was also alleged that PTV was ‘’prevented’’ from bidding.

Via: Dawn