LAHORE: In a first, Pakistan Cricket Board has announced to offer separate Central Contracts to players for white-ball and red-ball cricket.

Speaking at a scheduled press conference after the 69th Board of Governors (BoG) meeting held yesterday, the Chairman PCB, Ramiz Raja announced that the Board had made necessary changes in its Central Contract policy and had decided to offer players separate contracts for white-ball and red-ball cricket.

“The thought-process behind splitting red and white-ball contracts is to recognize the importance of white-ball cricket in the growth and development of the game,” said Ramiz.

The Chairman believed that the separation of central contract for white and red-ball specialists will help the management to develop a dedicated squad for each format, which would enable the team to engage with limited-overs and Test cricket simultaneously.

“We have four international events in the next 16 months, including two World Cups. This recognition of offering contracts to white-ball specialists will help us to eventually develop two separate squads, which could simultaneously be engaged in white and red-ball cricket. This will also allow us to have a bigger spread of talent to showcase to the world,” he claimed.

PCB has also increased the number of centrally contracted players from 20 to 33 while raising the match fees by 10 percent across all formats. The match fee for the non-playing member of the team has also been increased to 70 percent from 50 percent of the overall match fee.

The Board has also decided to introduce category “D” in its central contract structure,  which will comprise of emerging players, who are making a comeback or knocking at the doors of international cricket.

Meanwhile, the team captain will be compensated with a captaincy allowance for the additional responsibilities he has to undertake.

In order to reduce the workload of the elite players, PCB has decided to allocate an amount for current players to compensate for the losses they have to incur for not playing the franchise cricket.

“To discourage our elite players from signing up for additional off-season events, we have allocated a substantial pool of funds. This amount will be used to compensate them for their potential loss in earnings and will also manage their workload and ensure that they remain fully fit, fresh and ready when required on national duty,” said Ramiz.

Further, the central contracts for women players have also been revised as the number of centrally contracted players has been raised from 20 to 25, and a 15 percent increase in retainers across all categories, with a single contract concept.

Meanwhile, he also announced the establishment of the ‘Pakistan Cricket Foundation’, an initiative by the PCB for the welfare of retired cricketers, match officials, scorers, and ground staff with an allocation of Rs100 million as a donation.

Earlier, the Board of Governing (BoG) meeting of PCB was held yesterday at the National High-Performance Center (NHPC) under the presidency of the Chairman also attended by Chief Executive Officer Faisal Hasnain and Chief Operating Officer Salman Naseer.

The high-profile meeting discussed the essential topics pertaining to Pakistani cricket and approved the annual budget for the financial year 2022-23.

READ: Ramiz Chairs as the 69th PCB BoG meeting gets underway at NHPC today