Players get slight raise in contracts
The Pakistan players pose with the series trophy in the recently concluded England series. Photo: AFP
After a considerable delay, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced the central contracts for national cricketers. Several key players, including Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, and Sarfaraz Ahmed, were not included. Although the PCB did not secure player signatures on the contract before their departure to Australia, it plans to obtain approval via email.
The new contracts retain the previous match fees and monthly salaries but include a slight increase in the ICC share amount, based on a previously agreed formula. The payment for playing a Test match is PKR 1,257,795, while the fee for an ODI is PKR 644,620, and for a T20I, it is PKR 418,584. In Category A, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan will receive PKR 4.5 million as a monthly contract fee. The ICC share, which is 3% of the 2024-25 ICC revenue, has increased to PKR 2.07 million monthly, compared to the previous PKR 1.53 million. This brings their total monthly amount to PKR 6.57 million.
In Category B, players such as Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Shan Masood will receive a monthly salary of PKR 3 million, including an ICC share of PKR 1.552 million, up from the previous PKR 1.147 million, totaling PKR 4.552 million monthly.
Category C players, including Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Nauman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, and Shadab Khan, will receive a PKR 1 million monthly salary, with an ICC share of PKR 1.035 million, up from the previous PKR 765,000, bringing their monthly total to PKR 2.035 million.
Category D players, which include Aamir Jamal, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Harira, Mohammad Irfan Khan, Mohammad Wasim Junior, and Usman Khan, will receive a monthly salary of PKR 750,000. With the addition of the ICC share of PKR 517,500 (up from PKR 382,500), their monthly total will now be PKR 1.267 million.
Additionally, central contract players receive substantial compensation for playing domestic matches, with a fee of PKR 628,898 for a four-day match, PKR 322,310 for an ODI, and PKR 209,292 for a T20 match.
ICC names new deputy chair
Imran Khwaja will continue as the ICC's deputy chair after he was reappointed for another tenure. His new stint will begin on December 1, 2024, the day BCCI secretary Jay Shah begins his tenure as ICC chair.
Khwaja, who was first elected to the ICC Board in 2008, has been the deputy chair since 2017. In that time, he has also held the position of interim chair, stepping in after Shashank Manohar's term ended in July 2020. Later that year, Khwaja contested a leadership election for the top post against Greg Barclay, the latter winning after two rounds of voting were needed.
In July this year, at the ICC annual general meeting in Colombo, Khwaja was re-elected as one of three Associate member directors to sit on the ICC Board.
In August this year, Shah was appointed chairperson unopposed, replacing Barclay, served two of his three terms. At 35, Shah is the youngest to have been the head of the ICC and was also the fifth Indian to hold the position, after Jagmohan Dalmiya, Sharad Pawar, N Srinivasan and Manohar.
The ICC has also voted on a recommendation that changes the tenure limits of the ICC chair and board directors. Instead of a maximum of three terms of two years each, tenures will now be a maximum of two terms of three years each.