Players who are included in the retainers’ category of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) central contracts will benefit from the extension till June as they will receive a 10 percent increase on their monthly salaries as compared to other cricketers. The national squad signed the extended contracts before flying out to Sri Lanka and is expected to have renewed ones in July. Earlier, the PCB failed to announced new contracts once they expired in December 2014 and instead extended them till the ICC World Cup (March 2015). But come April and there was no news and just before their departure, the players were told that would be given the same amount included in their extended contract for the period of April-June 2015.
“All the players in categories A, B and C will get the same amount of money but those in the retainers’ category will get a 10 percent raise in their contracts from April-June,” a senior PCB official said. “There has been no new addition and deletion from the central contract list so far but there will be a revised list for the new contracts, which start from July.” The official further revealed that the delay was caused due to discussions between the PCB and senior players of the national team as they wanted to end a deadlock regarding certain clauses. He added that the new contracts would show an improvement in the match-fee given to players instead of raising individual bonuses.
“The PCB is keen to improve the match-fee and lower the bonus cash awards based on performances as some players previously tried to play for their own benefit instead of that of the team’s,” explained the official. “The formulation of the contracts and negotiations are still going on but the players will definitely be paid better now. We are also looking at the prospect of giving one-year contracts instead of those over a six-month period, but the deliberations continue on this aspect. The issue will be settled in a week’s time or so before an official announcement is made.”
