KARACHI


Pakistan’s top cricketers are expecting the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to give them another pay hike when the new central contracts for the year 2013 are given before the team leaves for the ICC Champions Trophy.
The sources close to some of the players said on Sunday that they were expecting a pay raise as their options for revenue earning were limited in comparison to players from other countries.
“Two senior players are leading the move to convince the board to give the players a pay raise but so far, the PCB has yet to decide on this,” a source said.
The PCB had last year, after a five months delay in handing out the central contracts, given the players a 25 per cent increase in their monthly salaries and also a 10 per cent raise in their match fees for all three formats of the game.
The raise increased the salaries of the cricketers in the A category of the contracts to 313,000 rupees and those in category B to 218,000. The Test match fees of the A category players also increased to around 320,000 rupees. “The players are arguing that not only do they not get an opportunity to play in the lucrative Indian Premier League but the board also stopped them from taking part in the Bangladesh Premier League this year.
“Plus the international and domestic commitments of the national team also means they can’t accept full contracts to play in other foreign leagues in England, Sri Lanka, South Africa or Australia resulting in loss of earnings,” the source said.
The PCB this year stopped its players from taking part in the BPL after a tiff with the Bangladesh Cricket Board over sending its team to Pakistan.