Featured Image: Photo by Alessandro Bogliari on Unsplash
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) office in Lahore has been raided by the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), with head of e-ticketing Mahvish Omer taken away by the latter for questioning.
The governmental organisation launched the investigation into alleged irregularities surrounding the sale of tickets for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and international cricket matches.
It also followed complaints of financial misconduct within the PCB as concerns had been raised regarding potentially fraudulent activities within ticket sales.
Omer has been accused of embezzling PKR80,000 (£230/$287/€268) but former PCB chairman Najam Sethi believes the allegations are false as the PSL made PKR60m from online ticket sales.
Sethi suggested that ticketing platform Bookme, which lost the contract to handle the online sales, could be the culprit.
“Mahvish has played a pivotal role in the growth of Pakistan Cricket – first in the PSL and then in managing ticketing as international cricket returned to Pakistan,” Sethi wrote on social media.
“She was accused by FIA of embezzling PKR 80,000. To give you context, the sale of PSL 2023 was around 60 Crores. This accusation is absurd.
“The accusation was made by BookMe – a ticketing company that lost a contract in a transparent bid process run by PCB. After losing the bid, the ticketing company in question raised appeals at appropriate forums and lost those appeals.
“It is appalling that a valued professional in PCB was treated with such disdain and high-handedness all because of one party’s personal grudge who has used its contacts to perpetrate this madness.”
He has since called on incumbent PCB chair Mohsin Raza Naqvi to seek justice.
The FIA has said that it expects full cooperation from the PCB during the ongoing investigation.
Share this