PCB mistakenly sends 2012 central contracts to Pak team

Karachi: In a major blunder, the PCB has ended up sending copies of the 2012 central contracts to the members of Pakistan team in England instead of dispatching the new contracts for 2013.

According to a report, the board officials realized their mistake after the old contacts had already been dispatched to England to be handed over to the players for their signatures. "After it was realized what had happened the board than sent the new central contracts announced recently for 2013," the report said. Interestingly, the players have only been sent the last page of the central contracts for their signatures meaning they are not aware as yet about the details and clauses on the other pages of the contracts. "Players have been told to sign the last page of the contracts by the manager of the team, Naved Akram Cheema who is handling things on behalf of the board causing some discern among the players who want to know details about the other clauses in their contracts," the report said. Senior players led by captain, Misbah-ul-Haq had demanded a 50 per cent pay raise in the new contracts but the board settled for much less increasing the monthly retainers by 15 percent plus a 10 percent increase in the test fees. Players now get a monthly retainer of around 365,000 in the top A category followed by 275,000 and 175,000 in the other categories. The announcement of the central contracts has become a burning issue in Pakistan cricket for some time now as this year also the contracts were handed out late in May while players complain many of the clauses are suffocating and trespass on their sources of livelihood and independence. PTI