Top Pakistan cricketers ‘seek match fee hike’

TOP Pakistani cricketers have appealed to their cricket board to consider a hike in match fees, a website reported.

Skipper Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan, all-rounder Hasan Ali and fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi, who were recently awarded 'A' grade contracts by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have told a senior official that their match fees should be revised, cricketpakistan.com.pk said.

According to its report, the players are not happy as there was no increase in their Test, ODI and T20I match fees in the new central contracts.

In July, the PCB announced a performance-based central contract list 2021-22 for 20 players, including three emerging cricketers, in which match fees across all formats were made the same for all categories.

Only four players - Babar, Rizwan, Hasan and Shaheen - were given category-A contracts while other senior players including former captains Azhar Ali and Sarfaraz Ahmed were relegated to grade B and C respectively.

Veterans like Muhammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Wahab Riaz were given no contracts.

To bring in uniformity across formats, the PCB increased the Test, ODI and T20 match fees in B and C categories while in grade A, only the retainer percentage was increased by 25 per cent.

As per the website report, one of the senior players has already registered his protest with PCB PCB director Zakir Khan and requested an increase in the match fee of category-A players.

While Khan has given no assurance, the senior cricketer is confident that it will not decline his request.

The report said that the PCB had denied that any cricketer had complained to them about their match fees.