Domestic players must be paid more, says former PCB Chairman – Cricket News Update
The former Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Lt. Gen (R) Tauqir Zia, feels that the domestic players must be paid higher in order to eradicate corruption from the game.
The structure of domestic cricket in Pakistan has been often criticised and there is an on-going debate about the role of regions and departments. Historically, departments such as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-International-Airlines-c831, Habib Bank Limited and National Bank of
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 have produced a huge number of quality international cricketers.
Regions, on the other hand, are blamed for nepotism and lack of merit when it comes to team selections. However, some of the former cricketers want PCB to concentrate more on the regional teams, as they can attract more fans at the local level, although
departments offer permanent jobs to the cricketers.
One of the major criticisms on the domestic cricket is over players’ salaries, which are nothing in comparison to the international stars. In some of the other parts of the world like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, even the local players earn
a lot and enjoy financial freedom.
While talking to Pakpassion, the ex-chairman expressed that he raised the salaries in first-class cricket but somehow the previous head of the board, Ijaz Butt, reduced them again.
The main cause behind the evils of match-fixing or spot-fixing, in Zia’s opinion, is the lack of money at the domestic level.
Zia said, "In my vision 2005 document, I wrote about welfare of cricketers. We had planned that we will give of lot of money to first-class cricketers to the tune of 25,000 – 30,000 PKR per match. Unfortunately, my successor, Mr. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128, reduced this
amount to be 5,000 PKR. In my opinion, if you give enough money to your first-class cricketers, they won't be inclined towards match-fixing and spot-fixing because they are being looked after."
Apart from the first-class players, the ex-chairman claimed that he was giving pension to some of the former greats of the game.
"The Board at that time had pension funds in place for legends such as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hanif-Mohammad-c61403, and some of the other elderly cricketers," the retired military man added.
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