Trouble for PCB as star Pakistan cricketers in top grade want a pay hike: Report

Pakistan's top-brass cricketers including skipper Babar Azam and the likes of wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan and fast bowlers Hasan Ali and Shaheen Shah Afridi may not be happy with their salaries even after being in the Grade A contacts in the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) annual central contract lost.

According to a report in cricketpakistan.com.pk, the four of the top cricketers in the country across all three formats have communicated to the senior PCB official of their displeasure and have asked it to be revised.

PCB had announced the annual performance-based contract for 2021-22 recently for 20 cricketers, which also included three emerging players. Babar Azam, Rizwan, Hasna Ali and Shaheen were the only four players in Category A, being the highest-paid bracket. However, according to the report, the cricketers were not happy as there was no increase in their match fees for Test, ODI and T20I matches.

The likes of Azhar Ali and Sarfraz Ahmed had slipped to Grade B and C, while the likes of Mohammad Hafeez and Wahab Riaz didn't receive the central contracts.

According to the PCB, to bring uniformity in the distribution of the contracts, they increased the Test, ODI and T20 match fee in Grades B and C and increased only the retainership percentage in Grade A contract, by 25 percent. 

In Grade B, the Test fee was increased by 15 percent while ODI and T20I fees saw a jump by 20 and 25 percent respectively. Similarly for Grade C, there was retainership percentage increase of 25 percent and 34, 50 and 67 percent increase in the Test, ODI and T20Is respectively.

One of the senior players has lodged a complaint about the same with the PCB's Director of International Cricket Zakir Khan to request an increase in match fee for Grade A across the formats.