Pakistan-India series possible next year

The bilateral cricket series between Pakistan and India would only be possible next year provided there is a room in the Future Tours Porgramme and the relations between the two countries are normal. An official of the PCB said that the new FTP is being enforced from the coming April and the old FTP which holds March-April as the scheduled time for the series would not come into force after the new is launched. “It appears as if both boards now have to make a fresh start in the new FTP with India scheduled to tour Pakistan in 2013,” PCB COO Subhan Ahmed said. India didn’t tour Pakistan in early 2009 in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, while Pakistan’s tour to India in March-April this year under the old FTP is cancelled due to various reasons.
Subhan said that it is a case of even-steven between the two boards. “We were demanding compensation for the cancelled tour of 2009 but now with India not hosting us this year, the situation has evened out between the two boards as both have suffered losses by not hosting these series in the old FTP,” Ahmad explained. “This basically means that we make a fresh start as far as bilateral relations are concerned between the two boards from 2013 when India is due to tour Pakistan under the new FTP,” he added.

PCB mulls pay raise for players

The Pakistan Cricket Board is considering a pay raise of the national cricket team for their glorious performance in the recent months. It has been learnt that the players would have enhanced pay cheques in their new central contract and the final decision will be taken in a meeting this week to discuss a possible pay raise. “We will see what we can do but we are looking at increasing the pay scales in the new central contracts as there have been no increments in the last three years and inflation has increased considerably in this period,” chief operating officer, Subhan Ahmad said. Pakistan players are given central contracts in three pay slabs with those in category A getting paid Rs 250,000 per month, those in B category Rs 175,000 and the ones in the C category Rs 100,000 per month. The payments are besides the match fees, allowances, logo sponsorship share and bonuses paid to the players.
The board also gives retainer contracts to players who perform well in domestic cricket. SUbhan said the new chairman of the board would be given a detailed briefing on the issue after the meeting of the officials who will shortlist and recommend names this week. “We will look to increase the pay packages keeping in mind the financial position of the board as well,” he added. The official said the new contracts were finalised as soon as the old contracts expired in December last year. He said the officials, including the chief selector, would recommend any changes in the list of centrally contracted players based on their performances and fitness.
Shahid Afridi is certain to once again get a category A contract after his old contract ended automatically when he announced his retirement from international cricket in May last year after being stripped of the one-day team captaincy. But sources said some established players like Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal could either miss out on the new contracts or be demoted to the C category while some of the new players will promoted.