KARACHI: There is growing discontent in the Pakistan camp over the continued delay in disbursement of the national team players’ monthly retainers, sponsorship share amounts, and announcement of the list of players who will get central contracts, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported on Wednesday.

A source close to the players, who are centrally contracted and part of the Pakistan squad, told PTI that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is yet to disburse the players’ monthly retainers and other sponsorship and share amounts.

“For the last three months the players are waiting for their payments and also an announcement of the central contracts list,” the source said.

In the last central contract agreement signed between the PCB and players, the latter got a substantial increase and other benefits from the board.

Under the existing agreement, the players in the top category including Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi are paid monthly retainers of Rs4.5 million after tax cuts besides their share from logo sponsorships and three per cent of the revenues the PCB gets from the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The players share of the ICC revenue for 2023-24 is close to Rs1.53 million each.

Another source in the board said that payments had been delayed because of administrative problems and also because the PCB too had not received its full revenues from different sources.

“The PCB is spending a lot on the complete facelift of the three stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Raw­a­lpindi for the ICC Cham­pions Trophy besides other cricket-related expenses,” he said “But the dues of players would be cleared this month.”

According to the contract, the ICC’s share was set to rise in 2024-25 and 2025-26, reaching Rs2,070,000 monthly for Category ‘A’, Rs1,552,500 for Category ‘B’, Rs1,035,000 for Category ‘C’, and Rs517,500 for Cate­g­ory ‘D’.

However, it remains uncertain whether these increases will be implemented. Under the previous contract, the fees were Rs1,257,795 for Test matc­hes, Rs644,620 for One-day Internationals, and Rs418,584 for T20 matches.

Interestingly, the board has also delayed disbursement of domestic players’ retainers and share of the Pakistan Super League franchises from the central pool.

“Last year also the central contracts announcement was delayed right until the World Cup began in India and this year there is more delay in the anno­uncement of contracted players,” the source said. “So there is growing uncertainty and unrest among some players.”

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024