LAHORE - The centrally contracted Pakistani players can look forward to an enhanced pay package after their superb performances in the last few months, a senior PCB official said.
The Pakistan Cricket Board will hold 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 250,000 rupees per month, those in B category 175,000 and the ones in the C category 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. Ahmad 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.