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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced the new structure for the central contracts of its players. PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi, alongside white-ball head coach Mike Hesson, national selector and Director of High Performance Aqib Javed, and other top board members, announced the new structure at a press conference back on Monday. There has been a whole restructuring.
Now, as per the reports coming from Geo News, the players have been divided into multiple categories based on the formats they represent and their availability for franchise leagues. Players contracted exclusively for Test will earn an annual salary of PKR 4.8 crore. Meanwhile, other cricketers who are part of both the Test and ODI setups will receive PKR 6 crore per year.
PCB announces new salary structure
This makes them the highest-paid category under the new structure, while players featuring in ODIs and T20Is are set to get PKR 2.16 crore annually, while those involved in T20Is and various league competitions will receive PKR 1.8 crore per year.
Apart from the annual retainers, the PCB has also revised match fees across formats. Players will earn PKR 15 lakh for every Test match, PKR 7.5 lakh for each ODI, and PKR 5 lakh per T20I appearance. This is a huge boost for the cricketers as they will be paid some lucrative amounts while playing for the nation.
New structure of central contracts
The new revamp in the central structure has replaced the previous A, B, C, and D categories with a five-tiered system that differentiates players based on their role, format specialisation, and stage of growth. The PCB has introduced a structure where Track A will include players who are red ball specialists.
Track B and C will include white-ball ODI and T20 players, and Track D will have only T20 and franchise cricket specialists. This has been done to bring out more talents, as the Pakistan National Cricket Team, both men's and women's, have been struggling in major ICC tournaments. It will be interesting to see if now Pakistan cricket improves with new structure.
Every single Test nation is struggling- Mike Hesson
The selection criteria for the Pakistan cricket team will now be strict as per Mohsin Naqvi's previous press conference. Fitness will be a key factor, and it remains a mandatory requirement for players earning the central contracts. Fitness has been one of the issues for Pakistan in recent years, which has caused several injuries during major matches.
"Every single Test nation is struggling to come up with a method or document for Test cricket and the challenges around that," Hesson, Pakistan's white-ball coach, said. "How do you value it from a financial point of view where you allow players to focus on Test cricket? The PCB have come up with a framework that caters for everything."
"It's an impressive document that gives true proof that they care about Test cricket. It also caters to the T20 player who could benefit from going around the world, learning their craft playing different tournaments and also be remunerated."
