Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Afridi sign PCB’s central contracts after a week of speculations

Pakistan is gearing up for the Asia Cup as they are set to face arch-rivals India in their opening fixture.

Even though the players took some time to peruse the central contracts, the speculations were not healthy for all the supporters of the Pakistani team. After a week full of discussion with their lawyers, captain Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi, among others, extended their contract with the PCB.

The board sent contracts to 33 of their players, splitting between their white-ball and red-ball cricketers. This is for the first time when the board has decided to do so. The contracts were sent to players at Lahore where the pre-tour camp was organised for the Netherlands tour and then the Asia Cup. Reports say that players in the lower categories signed the contracts immediately but the senior pros decided to wait.

Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali were also part of the group which decided to take some time with the contract. Thus, it was speculated whether the players want to strike a new deal with the board or not. However, they have signed the contract with some revisions after a week.

According to reports, the players took some time off to understand more about the NOC process in order to play foreign leagues. They wanted to know more about their image rights in ICC events and participation fees in the same.

Talking about money, all the players will receive match fees of Rs. 838,530 PKR (approx. US$3800) for a Test, Rs. 515,696 PKR for an ODI (approx. US$2300) and PKR 372,075 (approx. US$1700) for a T20I. However, the top contract holders of red-ball cricket will receive PKR 1,050,000 per month (approx. US$4700) and PKR 950,000 (approx. US$4300) for white-ball cricket.

Pakistan is set to challenge team India in their Asia Cup opener

After missing out on the T20 World Cup last year, Pakistan captain Babar Azam is eyeing his first major trophy of his captaincy career. The team defeated India in the T20 World Cup last year and would hope to do the same when the two arch-rivals meet each other on 28th of August in Dubai. Before that, the team will challenge Netherlands in a three-match ODI series. They will then travel to the UAE to begin their preparation for the Asia Cup.