The Pakistan Cricket Board has made it clear that even if a player does not sign the central contract offered to him, he still has to sign a tour contract before each series in order to play for the national team.
A senior PCB official told that any player who didn’t sign the central contract offered to him would have to forgo the monthly retainer offered to him plus the full year medical insurance coverage provided to him under the contract.
“If a player doesn’t sign the central contract offered to him he will not get the monthly retainer plus he will be paid match fees in the category C while he will only be medically insured for a particular tour and not for the whole year as is the policy of the board,” an official of the board was quoted by PTI.
“No player can be considered to play for the national team unless he signs a central contract or tour contract.” Media reports have said that some of the senior players led by captain, Misbah-ul-Haq were not happy with some of the stringent clauses in the new central contracts offered to them and also with the pay hike given to them by the Board.
These players had also asked the board to review the clauses. The official admitted that the players had asked the Board to extend the deadline for signing the contracts when it was offered to them around May 26. “The players contention was that since the contracts were offered to them just prior to leaving for Sri Lanka they wanted more time to study the contracts,” the official said. He confirmed that some senior players had also spoken to the Board about reviewing the pay raise of 25 percent in the central contract monthly retainers and 10 percent hike in the match fees offered in the new contracts. “It was explained to the players that it was for the first time after 2008 that the board had given a pay raise to the players and that it was not in a strong enough financial position to enhance these raises anymore,” the official said.
The official also confirmed that the PCB is still waiting for captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan and Mohammad Hafeez to sign the category A central contracts offered to them.
He said so far former captain Shoaib Malik and many other players including Ahmed Shehzad, Abdul Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Aizaz Cheema, Faisal Iqbal, Taufiq Umar, Nasir Jamshed, Adnan Akmal had signed the contracts.
He said keeping in mind the players wishes, the Board had given them an extra few days to study the contracts before signing them and sending them back to the board.
“Normally we give the players around 10 days to study the contracts and sign them this time on their request we have given them an extension but we expect all contracts to be signed during the Sri Lanka tour,” he said.
He said one reason for giving the extension to the players was to allow them to focus on the series in Sri Lanka and not complain about being pushed by the Board.
ICC prevents PCB from hosting more than three T20 matches
The ICC has initially rejected Pakistan Cricket Board’s request to allow it to host more than three Twenty20 matches against Australia in August-September. The ICC has advised the PCB to take up the issue for discussion at the chief executive’s meeting to be held in Kuala Lumpur at the end of June. “We had requested the ICC to allow us organise a series of more than three T20 matches against Australia in the coming series but the ICC instead has advised us that this matter should be discussed at the chief executive meeting,” PCB chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed reported to have said. The idea to convert the ODI series into a full-fledged T20 series came after the Emirates Board offered to host the series for Pakistan but suggested that due to the weather conditions and holy month of Ramazan, Pakistan and Australia should just play a series of six to seven T20 internationals. The PCB is yet to decide on the neutral venue for the series after the Australians refused to play in Pakistan due to security concerns. Ahmed said the PCB’s head of international cricket operations Intikhab Alam was in Malaysia to inspect the two grounds in Kuala Lumpur and would also visit the UAR from Thursday. “Once Intikhab submits his report on the ground conditions in both countries we will decide where to hold the Australia series. But one problem we face in organising the series in Kuala Lumpur is that in August the forecast is for 17 days of rain and that could spoil our series,” Ahmed said. The PCB official hinted UAE appeared to be the best bet to hold the series which would be begin after Ramazan ends around August 20th. “We have to hold the series in a period from August 20 to September 11 as the team has to reach Sri Lanka for the ICC T20 World Cup by the 13th,” he said. The ICC has advised all cricket boards to submit their preliminary list of 30 players for the World Cup by end of June. No Test playing nation has visited Pakistan since militants attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in March, 2009 killing six Pakistani policemen and a van driver apart from wounding some of the visiting players. Pakistan since then has played most of its “home” series in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
