The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to end the red and white ball category from the Central Contracts, sources reported on Friday.
The new contracts will be distributed in four different categories, named A, B, C and D, to the players.
The PCB has also decided to reduce the number of players — which was 33 in the last year — in the central contract to 25 or 26.
The players are also expected to get a historic rise of about 50% increase in their match fees in new contracts.
Captain Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi are included in category A and are the top earners with Rs4.5 million a month as a retainer, almost four times higher than last year’s offer.
In Category B, players will earn around Rs3 million, while the players in Category C and D will earn under the region of Rs0.75-1.5 million.
It must be noted that the contracts expired on June 30 but were extended for a month due to uncertainty regarding chairmanship in the PCB.
The PCB will hand out the central contracts for the players after the announcement of the new selection committee and the approval of the PCB management committee chairman Zaka Ashraf.
Earlier, the PCB appointed former Test cricketer Misbah-ul-Haq as the head of the high-profile Cricket Technical Committee.
The committee includes former Test cricketers Inzamam-ul-Haq — who is likely to become head of the new selection committee — and Mohammad Hafeez.
The cricket trio will provide recommendations on cricket-related matters, including, but not limited to the overall domestic structure, scheduling, playing conditions, the appointment of the national selection committees, the appointment of national team coaches, central and domestic contracts and plans for the development of umpires, referees and curators.
They will also have the power to invite additional cricket experts and shall report to the head of the PCB Management Committee on a regular basis.
Sohail Imran Sohail Imran is a senior reporter for Geo News.