Charity won't see Bollywood match proceeds

'We did not even recover 20 per cent of our money,' say organisers as administration problems leave Dubai Autism Centre short.

The Bollywood actor Salman Khan, left, and Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar share a light moment during the presentation ceremony after the match.

DUBAI // None of the proceeds from a celebrity cricket match attended by several thousand people at Dubai Sports City last weekend will go to charity, the event's organisers admitted yesterday. Haider Ali Mirza, the head of the events company Cynosure, said administration problems had hindered his efforts to give some of the profit to the local charity partner, the Dubai Autism Centre.

When the project was first announced, it was marketed as a match to support the Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's new charity, Being Human. However, Indian law states that a charity less than three years old cannot raise funds. The charity is not registered in Dubai, which would have made it illegal to raise funds in the emirate. As a second option, Cynosure said it would hold an auction of Khan's watches and clothes at a gala dinner the following evening, after the cricket match, and donate the proceeds to a local organisation, the Dubai Autism Centre. That auction, however, did not happen.

"We cancelled Salman's auction. It did not take place. It was too late," said Mr Mirza. "I don't know exactly what happened. We were sent a form but it was so late." On Thursday, he promised at a press conference that the charity would benefit from the match, though he did not disclose the amount. Yesterday, however, he said the event had not been a success financially, having cost almost Dh3 million (US$817,000). Ten per cent of that was spent on hiring the stadium, he said.

"We did not even recover 20 per cent of our money," he said. "We never wanted this to be a profitable match." The company says it sold around 10,000 tickets for the match, priced from Dh35 to Dh5,000, and at least 250 for the gala dinner, priced at Dh1,000 per person. "We have not received anything," said a spokeswoman from the Dubai Autism Centre. "The legal papers were not submitted on time by the company.

"Due to the procedures we were not able to get them in on time and that's why we were absent on the match and the dinner." Those who bought tickets for the event said they were disappointed, not only because they were led to believe that a charity would benefit, but also because the match started two hours late at 9pm on Thursday and Atif Aslam, a Pakistani singer who was due to perform on Friday evening, failed to appear.

Many had been expecting the Bollywood star Salman Khan to play. He announced at the time the match started that having not picked up a bat for more than 25 years, he would let his actor brother, Sohail Khan, captain the team. "I thought the money was going to charity," said Shadaab Ahmed, a 23- year-old Dubai student from Delhi, India. "People spent this amount in tickets because they thought they could support charity in some way. If it's not going there, then it's quite bad."

Farhan Javaid, a 17-year-old Pakistani from Dubai, paid Dh500 for a platinum ticket. "It wasn't really organised and they had promised before that Salman was going to be on the pitch. People mainly came to see him play cricket," he said. "As for the charity aspect, that is ridiculous. The whole campaign took place as a charity match and now we are told none of it is going to charity. It's disappointing and ridiculous."

Sadaf Saheem, a 20-year-old Indian from Sharjah, said: "For the charity, it seems like it's careless organisation. They should have thought about that before." Mr Mirza said he hoped to hold more celebrity tournaments in the future, adding that officials from the Abu Dhabi cricket stadium had already approached him and offered their pitch for free. [e-mail]