"Our major sponsors in Pakistan, who support cricket, are bound to rethink their sponsorship deals if we can’t have international cricket in the country," chief operating officer of the board Saleem Altaf said on Monday.

Cricket is the top sport in Pakistan with sponsors lining upto invest in international and, to a lesser extent, in domestic events. But the prospect of the country hosting any Tests in the near future is highly unlikely.

Seven people were killed and six Sri Lanka players wounded in last Tuesday’s attack on the Sri Lankan team bus and a coach carrying match officials. "Obviously it is going to eat into our revenues and existing funds," Altaf said.

The two Tests against Sri Lanka, arranged because India pulled out of their tour following last November’s militant attacks in Mumbai, were the first in Pakistan for over a year. Teams are reluctant to travel to Pakistan because of the fluid security situation in the country. Australia called off a Test tour last April and the International Cricket Council (ICC) also relocated the Champions Trophy from Pakistan.

Altaf pointed out Pakistan lost $20 million in estimated revenues when India cancelled. On top of lost income from not hosting Tests, the PCB are now likely to incur increased costs for staging home series at neutral venues and finding suitable sponsors.

"Obviously the cost of staging matches at home is less than if we play at neutral venues and our sponsors remain happy," Altaf said. The former Test player said if no international cricket was held in Pakistan the board would have to spend more money on domestic tournaments to keep interest in the sport alive in the country.

The lack of international opportunities for Pakistan last year led the PCB to rejuvenate the domestic game and make it mandatory for the country’s leading players to take part. Pakistan’s domestic cricket structure revolves around two first-class competitions, two one-day tournaments and a national twenty20 championship, which has stirred up great interest from the public and sponsors with crowds of around 30,000 showing up for the final.

The PCB has an estimated 2.6 billion Pakistan rupees ($32.22 million) in its kitty with $10 million coming from an advance payment from a five-year broadcasting/media rights deal for around $140.2 million with Dubai-based Ten Sports. (The News)

Altaf said the deal would remain intact and Pakistan had been assured by the ICC it would get hosting rights fees of around $2 million regardless of where the Champions Trophy is held this year.

For the fiscal year of June 2007 to July 2008 the PCB had a budget of 2.4 billion rupees ($29.74 million) with about 730 million rupees ($9.05 million) dedicated for development work and running domestic cricket.

The PCB has not announced a budget for the fiscal year of 2008-09 but sources on the board said following the appointment of chairman Ijaz Butt, the development work costs had been cut down as had administrative expenditures but the costs of organising domestic cricket remained the same.