The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has reportedly reviewed the domestic match fees policy for its centrally contracted players, according to which these players will now be entitled to the same match fee for playing domestic cricket like other cricketers.
Earlier, the PCB had announced that if a centrally contracted cricketer plays domestic cricket, he/she would be given 50 percent of the match fee, as per their central contract, for playing in a domestic cricket match.
As per reports, the board has taken this decision to attract cricketers, who have central contracts, to play in domestic cricket.
Reports however, suggested that the board has abruptly changed the policy. As per the new policy, players, who enjoy central contracts, will be paid the same amount of domestic match fees as everyone else.
“The PCB said it has ended the discrimination of perks and salaries at all levels with the new policy,” a PCB official was quoted as saying by Geo TV website.
“The PCB said that the seniority slab system to determine match fees was no longer applicable, adding that if the compensation for playing in international matches was the same then the same practice should also be adopted when it comes to domestic matches,” the report added.
Earlier on July 2, the PCB had announced the central contracts for its men’s team. In the new list, pacer Hassan Ali and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan were promoted to category A following their good shows in the recent past.
The PCB had announced the contracts after the Governing Board’s approval of the 2021-22 fiscal year’s budget, which will run from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022.
“It is an enhanced and performance-based central contract list 2021-22 for 20 elite male cricketers, including three emerging cricketers, in which match fee across all formats has been equalized,” the PCB statement had said.
The new list was finalised by the panel that comprised Director – International Cricket, Zakir Khan, chief selector Muhammad Wasim and Director – High Performance, Nadeem Khan, who also consulted Head Coach Misbah-ul-Haq and captain Babar Azam as part of the process.
Meanwhile, the PCB had demoted former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed to C category while Mohammad Hafeez was ignored from the list.
Moreover, the PCB had also revised the renumeration packages of the players. After the revision, players in top category will get a 25 percent hike, however, there’s no increase in match fee for Test, ODI and T20Is.
Meanwhile, players in B category were also announced of a 25 percent raise while the Test match fee was increased by 15 percent, ODI match fee by 20 percent and T20I match fee by 25 percent.
On the other hand, players in C category were announced a 34 percent increase in Test match fee, 50 percent increase in ODIs and 67 percent rise in T20Is.
The Babar Azam-led Pakistan is currently touring Bangladesh for a three-match T20I series and a two-Test series.
The Green Brigade had recently won the T20I series 3-0 and will now face the hosts in the Test series with the first affair scheduled to begin on November 26 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.
The second Test will be held from December 4 in Dhaka.