PCB reduce match fees for domestic women cricketers

PAKISTAN CRICKET PCB reduce match fees for domestic women cricketers Aayush Puthran Share Tweet

Pakistan domestic cricketers are set to earn only PKR 20,000 per game, a cut from the earlier match fee of PKR 25,000 ©Getty

Amidst an embarrassing comedy of communication and perception-firefighting errors at the Pakistan Cricket Board, in which it was revealed that Pakistan's domestic men cricketers have undergone a pay cut, Cricbuzz understands that their women counterparts have suffered a similar fate.

Only a few days ago, following media reports that the men players featuring in the National T20 Cup had their match fees reduced by 75 percent, the PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi was reported to have 'stepped in' to review the decision that was taken by his own board. The details of the pay cut had been revealed almost a week earlier by Ahmed Shehzad on national television.

Amongst the machismo of the chairman, what was lost was the fact that the match fees of the domestic women cricketers were also reduced, from PKR 25,000 to PKR 20,000 (approx USD 71). This information wasn't revealed publicly. What was printed in the press release instead was that 90 domestic cricketers were handed contracts for the 2024-25 season, an increase from the list of 79 contracted cricketers last season.

The board claimed, "With the announcement of the 12-month retainers, the PCB aims to expand the talent pool in women's game at the grassroots level and also to inspire the young players to take up the sport as professionals." However, a look at the financials suggests otherwise.

Despite increasing the number of contracts, the in-hand pay of the players have reduced. The lack of earning opportunities through the sport have been one of the several reasons why players often drop out of the domestic set-up in less than two years.

The latest domestic contract list includes 10 capped Pakistani players, 62 emerging players and 18 Under-19 players. The capped players' list also includes Nida Dar and Aliya Riaz, who lost out on the batch of central contracts that were delayed by five months. That decision was also questionable. Not only have they been regulars in the national team throughout the season of the existing contract, but Dar had even captained the side at one point during the ongoing cycle.

Other than the fact that the domestic contracts were also delayed by almost nine months, it has come to light that the players were given monthly retainers worth PKR 35,000 (approx USD 125), which is less than the mandated minimum pay for unskilled labourers in Pakistan, which stands at PKR 37,000.

A domestic player revealed that they haven't been paid any daily allowances either this season. An email was sent to the PCB to verify the figures mentioned above. While the board admitted to the figures of the contract retainers, it claimed that the match fees haven't been reduced.

The concern is not just about low pay but also limited playing opportunities. Across the three domestic tournaments that PCB organises for senior women, a player gets a maximum of 31 days of cricket, assuming that they feature in every single playing XI for their side and reach the final of each of those tournaments. Thus, the maximum earning that a player can make with the retainers and the match fees is PKR 1,040,000 (approx USD 3700) this season.

For a player who doesn't feature in the XI, the match fees sink to PKR 10,000 (approx USD 35). Out of these earnings, for a professional cricketer to get a personal trainer, have a managed diet and other cricket-related expenses, can go up to PKR 600,000 annually. Most players, however, compromise on these aspects of their cricketing development and make do with whatever they can afford.

The disparity in the investment in their cricket, unfortunately, more often than not shows in their cricketing development - none more blatantly than their fitness. As one of the domestic players reveals, "Living in Pakistan, not everyone can afford a professional athlete life. It's up to you how well you manage your cricket training within the means that you have. I end up spending approximately PKR 400,000 on my cricket, but I can't afford a personal trainer."

Getting perspective

When Naqvi took over his current role last year, he mentioned that PCB's money was not meant to be 'locked away', but should be put to use in the interest of the players from the grassroots to the international level. The board was also reported to have increased the spending on women's cricket from PKR 70 million to PKR 240 million. However, while there is no information on any significant investment in the facilities for women's cricket, no significant change was certainly noticed in the earnings of international or domestic women cricketers.

To offer perspective, Cricket Australia gets USD 37.53 million, just over USD 3 million more than PCB's revenue share of USD 34.51 million annually through the International Cricket Council. Despite the minimal difference in revenue share from the ICC, there is a sharp difference in the investments the two boards have made in the development of its women's cricket, and the earning opportunities it offers to its national and domestic cricketers.

Under the 2023 deal between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association, Australian domestic players who do not play for the national team were earning an average of approx. USD 96,000 annually by featuring in both 50-over Women's National Cricket League and the Twenty20 WBBL formats, inclusive of match fees. The figure is nearly 25 times higher than what a Pakistani domestic player can potentially earn. This investment was made by Cricket Australia even as they suffered USD 21.34 million loss that financial year and USD 16.9 million loss in the preceding year (2022-23). The Pakistan board, on the other hand, earned a surplus of approx USD 11 million in 2022-23.

In India, the lowest price for a player featuring in the Women's Premier League is INR 10 lac (approx USD 11,500) for a three-week tournament. The highest earning domestic player in the tournament makes INR 2 Crore (approx USD 230,500).

It's not just about the boards that earn more than the PCB. Even New Zealand Cricket, a board that gets around USD 6 million less than the Pakistan board from the ICC share, offers better salaries to its women cricketers. Not only does it offer contracts to 72 domestic players, but even the lowest-earning player makes approximately USD 11,000 annually, three times higher than the earnings of their potentially highest-earning Pakistani counterpart.

While the rest of global cricket is shifting towards pay parity even at the domestic level, PCB continues to witness a significant disparity. Unlike the financial details of the women's team, PCB publishes the compensations for the men cricketers rather openly. As per PCB's release in August 2024, for men cricketers featuring in one game of Quaid e Azam, the first-class tournament, would fetch them PKR 200,000 (approx USD 715) per game. Additionally, a 'Grade A' contracted men's domestic cricketer stood to earn PKR 550,000 (approx USD 2000) per month in retainers alone. Even the lowest grade cricketer in the contract list, stood to make PKR 250,000 (approx USD 890) per month.

As per the revised match fees details revealed by Rashid Latif on Twitter, which could be reconsidered, the expense on match fees of senior and under-19 men's domestic cricketers alone amounts to USD 390,361, far more than the expense on the entire budget of women's cricket (USD 250,060) reported till last season. The disparity through additional game time and more qualitative opportunities through league cricket for men and women domestic cricketers is altogether a different discussion.

The social issues for Pakistani women to play cricket are plenty. The PCB hasn't made it any easier for them with its infrastructural and financial neglect. Concerns range from low pay to delayed payments to lack of game time to abrupt changes in domestic structures to changes in training camps. It's not rocket science then that even for a country so highly passionate about its cricket and with the fourth highest revenue, its women's team find themselves sitting among the lowest-ranked Full Member teams in the world, with rarely any interest from overseas T20 leagues.

© Cricbuzz

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