PCB fines four players for lack of fitness

Each player would have a quarter of their monthly salary docked for four months

As per PCB’s new policy of prioritising fitness, Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal, Abdur Rehman and Raza Hasan have all been fined after they were found to be below the required fitness level, according to ESPNcricinfo.

The four players will each have a quarter of their monthly salary docked for four months, meaning that the total fine amounts to a single month’s salary. At the end of the four-month period, which started in August, the players will have to have their fitness levels reassessed.

The cricket board had said earlier this month that it was mulling over fining players that fail to keep up a required fitness level that was decided by the National Cricket Academy during a month-long training camp in Lahore that started in May.

The fitness levels of 28 players were to be assessed between September 6 and 8. However, three of these players – Afridi, Wahab Riaz and Nasir Jamshed – could not be present due to personal reasons. Afridi’s fitness was tested on a later date but Riaz’s and Jamshed’s fitness will be tested once they return from the T20 Champions League in India, where they are representing the Lahore Lions.

Meanwhile, five players were given bonuses for maintaining a high level of fitness. Shan Masood and Umar Amin will receive 17.5 per cent bonus every month for the next four months, while Misbahul Haq, Ahmed Shehzad and Bilawal Bhatti will receive 10 per cent each for the same duration.