Shaheen Afridi to Earn Less Than Babar Azam? New PCB Contract Salaries Revealed
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has taken the initiative to restructure the national team's system and as part of this, it has launched a new central contract system for national team players. According to the new system players will be divided into five different categories based on their role and the formats in which they are included in the national team.
After a series of disappointing performances in major tournaments the Pakistan cricket team is currently under a cloud. The team failed to even reach the group stage in the 2023 ODI World Cup and also failed to produce decent performances in the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy.
The situation deteriorated with the national team losing the recent Test series against Bangladesh following which the PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi
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Five Separate Paths Introduced by the PCB
As part of this new setup all the contracted players will be separated into five different categories or tracks.
The Test and ODI focused players are placed in the Track AB. The purely test match format players are in Track A. Track BC categorizes players who play ODIs and T20s whereas Track C comprises T20Is specialists and franchise players. Track D has been designed for the development players.
The chairman of the PCB Mohsin Naqvi explained the reasoning behind the new contract and pathway system.
“Every cricket board in the world is grappling with the same question: how do you keep Test cricket strong in the age of the franchise game? At Pakistan, we have chosen to answer it with structure rather than words. I am proud that this framework puts us at the front of that thinking - and I believe it points to a direction the wider game will move toward in the years ahead.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board thinks the structure will offer some sort of transparency for all the players involved and strengthen Pakistan's future planning for all three formats.
Salary Structure and Possible Player Categorization
As per the details that have surfaced regarding the pay scale the Pakistan players falling under the Test and ODI category (Track AB) would earn an annual salary of 6 crore Pakistani rupees. They will be among the highest paid players of the national team. The Test-only players on the other hand would receive a salary of 4.8 crore. Players performing in the ODI and T20 matches would get an annual pay of 2.16 crore whereas the T20 and franchise league players would get roughly 5 lakh PKR per year.