Pakistan players are on the verge of signing the newly-proposed central contract by the Pakistan Cricket Board ahead of the all-important ODI World Cup in India. According to reports, Pakistan players are set to receive a massive hike in their new central contracts with the emergence of franchise leagues around the globe.
The major talking point in renewing the contract was the participation of the Pakistan players in the overseas franchise leagues, as Pakistan Cricket Board has accepted the players’ request of allowing them to participate in the T20 leagues with some demands in place, concerning playing for the Pakistan team in the International games.
According to the reports in Espncricinfo, PCB has agreed to issue a Non-objection certificate for the players in two overseas league subject to the International calendar, while the players in category A will be allowed to be part of any franchise league in the globe and other players would be allowed to be part of two franchise leagues.
Star Pakistan players Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi are set to earn a whopping PKR 4.5 million a month as a retainer which will be four times higher than that of last year.
Pakistan Cricket Board is expected to make a vital change in the central contract by introducing multi-year deals for their players and increasing the match fees and contracts to retain the top players of the country to play for the nation in forthcoming years.
According to reports, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi are set to be category A with players playing across the formats. Category B players are set to earn PKR 3 million while Category C and D will get between PKR 0.75-1.5 million.
The hike has come into place after ICC’s new revenue distribution model and PCB would be wary of the fact that many players may potentially move towards the global leagues as that can give them huge financial stability as the demand for the top quality players to play franchise cricket is very high.
Pakistan Cricket has been facing issues related to their domestic cricket and team selections in recent times as they have appointed Cricket Technical Committee under Mishab-ul-Haq to recommend the overall structure of cricket in the country and as the members of the committee have great experience of playing the game for the country over the years.