Pakistani players are unhappy with some of the clauses included in the nearly 200-page new central contract documents sent to them after a long delay by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Well-informed sources close to some of the players told PTI that one of the biggest complaints they had was that the board had stopped the win bonuses given to the team for winning a Test, One-day international or T20 match.
“In the new central contracts players will not get the win bonus which has come as a shock to them. Because the win bonus meant that when Pakistan won a match in any format the players got a 100 per cent bonus amount of his match fees,” one source said.
He said the players were also unhappy at the delay in announcing the central contracts and also over the long time the PCB took in sending the contract documents to the players.
“The players got the contract documents nearly two weeks after the board announced the list of players who were given the contracts. And than ironically they all got SMS messages from the board asking them to give their consent to the contracts in a matter of two days because of tax issues,” the source said.
“In the SMS`s the board told the players that if they didn`t gave their consent before June 30th they would have to pay withholding tax at rate of 7 per cent which had been increased to 10 percent by the government from July 1st,” the source added.
He said the players were also not satisfied with some clauses regarding disciplinary matters included in the new contracts.
“Some of the senior players including Misbah-ul-Haq and Muhammad Hafeez had advised some of the other players not to sign the documents as they should first speak to the board about the dropped win bonuses in the new contracts. But Shahid Afridi and Ahmed Shahzad went ahead and signed their contracts,” the source said.
“Obviously Afridi and Shahzad are not the most popular players right now in the Pakistan camp for their haste in signing the contract documents,” he added.
“Instead of increasing harmony amongst the players and between the players and the board the new contracts have only created more discontent and issues,” another source said.
In the new contracts, the board has given a 20 per cent pay hike to the players in their monthly retainers and 10 per cent in their match fees.
……….PTI