KARACHI, 13 February 2004 — Two Indian companies are among four bidders who have lodged a written protest with the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over the bidding process being held to award sponsorship and other rights of the Pakistan and India series.
LG Electronics, Percept D” Mark (India) Madison Outdoor Media Services and Sign Source Outdoor Media Services have questioned the transparency claims of the PCB bidding process which started on Saturday.
The representatives of these four companies have protested to Shaharyar Khan over the fact that Ford Rhodes and its representative Qamar-ul-Islam, who are handling the bids for the Board, had accepted late bids from World Sports Nimbus (India) and a Pakistani advertising company Interflow.
The protest letter to the chairman states: “This refers to the submission of bids for the Pakistan-India series which was to be submitted before 10.00 a.m. on Feb.7, 2004.
“We have noticed and find it very shocking that Ford Rhodes have received bids after 10.00 a.m. i.e. 10.10 a.m. and 10.17 a.m. to be more precise. The bids received after the due time are as follows 1. World Sports Nimbus. 2. Interflow.”
“We take this opportunity to raise our reservations as follows:
1. The bids were accepted after 10.00 a.m.
2. The receiving time of late bids was manipulated by Qamar-ul-Islam.
3. All this has been under protest.
“We ask PCB to disqualify the late bidders and take action against Ford Rhodes for accepting bids after the allocated time and for manipulating the receiving time.”
But so far it appears this protest has had little or no effect on the PCB as its chairman, who in fact went out of his way to defend the acceptance of the late bids on Saturday stating there were genuine reasons for the delay of the bids that were accepted late.
And yet Shaharyar Khan has been laying lot of stress on having a transparent bidding process for the India series. His claims have clearly been put to question with the protest from the four bidders.
The bidding committee of the board, sources said, had gone through all the submitted bids and indications are that the bid submitted through Trans World International (TWI) is likely to get the title sponsorship of the series. Sources say the top bid amount received is over $4 million for the title sponsorship and some other rights of the series.
Objections are also being raised over the PCB stance of not opening and announcing all the bids in the presence of representatives of all the 14 companies as was expected during the ceremony held at PCB headquarters here. Sami to Iron Out Wrinkles With Advice From Imran, Akram
Meanwhile, Pakistan”s strike bowler Muhammad Sami will seek the advice of former fast bowling greats Imran Khan or Wasim Akram to remove problems in his bowling action or rhythm which saw him struggle on the recent tour of New Zealand.
