PCB starts clearing players' dues after central contracts issue resolved

The Pakistan Cricket Board has started clearing the dues of national team players, which were held up for the last few months because of issues relating to new central contracts.

A PCB official confirmed that majority of the players offered new contracts had signed the document and their dues had been cleared dating back to June.

"A few who have not signed as yet will do so in the next two days and their dues will also be cleared swiftly," he said.

While the old central contracts expired in June, the new contracts list was not announced until late September because of differences between the players and the cricket board.

The team then left for India to play in the World Cup.

Eventually, the board gave in and announced big hikes in the monthly retainership of players and also confirmed they would get a three per cent share annually from the ICC revenue the board gets on a yearly basis.

A reliable source stated that some of the players, including Iftikhar Ahmed and Shan Masood among others, had not signed the document as they were not happy with being placed in category D of the new contracts, but later relented after being assured they would be promoted soon.

A big issue was made out of the fact that Pakistan players had not been paid their monthly salaries while they were playing in the World Cup. Around the same time, relations between the team and the PCB also soured over some statements made by chairman, Zaka Ashraf, on the team performances.

The Pakistan team could not make it to the World Cup semifinals after losing five of the nine games.

Babar Azam, who resigned as captain across formats following the debacle, Muhammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi (who has been made T20 captain), are the only three players given category A contracts, which means they will get much higher monthly retainers compared to the other three categories.

• World Cup 2023

After the pay hikes, the three are being paid a monthly retainer of around Pak Rs 6.2 million including taxes. They will also take home match fees, bonuses and share from the ICC revenue and other team kit sponsorship deals.