PCB to pay compensation to its players for rejecting offers from foreign leagues

The PCB introduced separate ‘white ball’ and ‘red ball’ contracts for its players on Friday. The board has now come up with a plan of discouraging its players from participating in foreign leagues by paying them compensation. The PCB said that the Board of Governors meeting has approved an annual budget of 15 billion rupees for the fiscal year 2022-23 with 78 percent allocated for cricket activities.

"As part of its strategy to incentivize, reward and encourage its high-performing elite cricketers, as well as to narrow the gap in salaries compared to players of other countries, the BoG has approved changes in the men's central contracts structure," the PCB said in a statement.

The new contracts will come into effect from July 1. The number of centrally contracted players has also increased from 20 to 33. The Board announced a 10 per cent increase in match fees across formats and also an increase in match fees for non-playing members from 50 per cent to 70 percent of the overall match fee.

PCB Chairman, Ramiz Raja also announced at a media conference in Lahore that the Board has also set up a special fund for current players who get offers for playing in foreign leagues.

Explaining the reason behind not wanting the players to play in foreign leagues, Raja said that it is important as the board doesn’t want the players to be tired when they go for national duties.

"We want to discourage our elite players from signing up for additional off-season events. We feel the players are better off not going to these leagues. We will pay them 50 to 60 percent of the contract amount they are offered where required.

"This is a very important season for us we don't want our players to be tired or burnt out. We want them to be ready and fresh to go for national duties,” Raja said.