Pakistan Cricket Board to Reduce Salaries of Senior Players Due to Poor Form

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is planning to reduce the salaries of senior players, including Babar Azam and Shaheen Shah Afridi, in response to the team’s deteriorating performance. Recent losses, including a home ODI series defeat against the West Indies and a T20I series loss to Bangladesh, have led the board to take this action. The PCB intends to cut salaries by removing the 3% ICC revenue share from the central contracts, which was implemented two years ago following pressure from senior players. This action could potentially cost players around $6 million and will be in effect before the Asia Cup 2025. Although the PCB increased its budget for retainership expenses, the board is unlikely to raise match fees for players. Current contracts provide approximately 1.2 million rupees for a Test match, 600,000 rupees for an ODI, and 400,000 rupees for a T20I. Category A players like Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan currently receive 657,500 Pakistani rupees per month, who would be affected. The removal of the ICC revenue share will impact the salaries of all contracted players across different categories.