Pakistan Cricketers Get Major Financial Boost in New Central Contracts

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has given its players a major financial boost in the new central contracts awarded to them.

The players have been given major raises in their Test, One-day and Twenty20 match fees with the category A players to be earning approximately 5,50,000 for playing a Test match. (Also read: PCB urges Nawaz Sharif to convince India for bilateral cricket series)

Similarly for a One-day International, the category A players will be paid 3,63,000 rupees and 2,75,000 rupees for a T20 match appearance.

"The category B players have also been given a handsome raise and they will now earn 4,80,000 rupees for a test appearance, 3,03,000 for one-day and 2,20,000 for T20," one player told PTI.

The Category C players will now earn 4,10,000 rupees for a Test, 2,42,000 for one-day and 1,65,000 rupees for T20.

The players in D category will also be paid the same as those in category C.

Players not in the playing XI are also entitled to 50 per cent of the match fees for any format. (Must read: Shahid Afridi to host charity T20 for refugees)

The match fees are in addition to the monthly retainers that are being paid out to the players in their central contracts. For example, players in category A are paid monthly retainer of close to 4,00,000 rupees.

Interestingly, the board has also promised a 250 per cent bonus of their match fees for winning a series against any of the top three ranked teams in the ICC rankings, while there is a bonus of 300 per cent for winning a ICC or Asian Cricket Council event.

The PCB has also increased the special allowance of the captain, who will now be paid 50,000 rupees for a Test and 25,000 for a ODI regardless of the fact whether he plays in them or not.

 

Some of the players have expressed unhappiness over the fact that the board has dropped the bonus payment for winning individual matches which was 100 per cent of the match fees in the last central contracts.

Former Pakistan captain, Rashid Latif, however, felt while it was good that the players were getting enhanced match fees, he advised the cricket board to keep more disparity in the fees for Tests and the other two formats.

"I would have liked to see the board increasing the Test match fees more compared to the other two formats as this would have encouraged the young players to try and win a Test cap. At present, Pakistan is playing far more one-day and T20 matches in a year and a player knows that if he can manage to play certain amount of ODIs and T20 internationals he can earn far more than what he would be earning by playing in just Test matches," Latif said.

He said with more and more foreign T20 leagues coming up, there was always a danger that the youngsters and seniors opt to just focus on limited over games rather than Test matches.

Pakistan's flamboyant allrounder, Shahid Afridi has already said that after the World Cup in 2015, he would contemplate just playing T20 matches for Pakistan.