A few days after the PCB announced the central contracts structure for players for 2026-27, another development has come about, on Friday. Now, as per ESPNCricinfo, only male players who have played four Tests, six ODIs or six T20Is in the last 12 months, will be eligible for the central contracts.
Minimum matches criteria set
This move is to ensure that only active cricketers are being awarded central contracts. And this is applicable to all tracks (categories), except for D, which is for emerging players. Just for the record, AB will have players who are valuable in Tests and ODIs, A will have Test specialists, BC and C will only have white-ball players.
Coming back to the eligibility, to get the central contracts, the players will be required to go through three-step model. They will have to clear the medical and fitness test, maintain participation in the domestic circuit, and also score a specific number of runs. The report further states — that the category of each player depends on the PCB solely.
In fact, medical and fitness standards have also been set, and all the players will be required to go medical screening every four months. Going further, the AB category players will have to play a minimum of four FC matches, and as many List A matches, while the A players will have to play 6 FC encounters in a year. Similar standards have been set for BC & C as well.
The PCB also laid the guideline — as to how to retained in the central contracts for the following year. The selection panel will carry 15%, while the rest will depend on the player’s scores in international and domestic cricket, and also the fitness standards.
Money structure for PCB Central contracts
The PCB also announced the salary for each of the categories; this includes the match fees — Tests, ODIs and T20Is, as well as their monthly retainer salaries. Here also, AB category benefits the most. For playing a Test, the match fees will be PKR 15,00,000, for ODI it will be 9,00,000, and for T20I it will be 5,00,000. Then there are two sub categories in the each of the tracks. AB will have a monthly retainer of 48,00,000 or 38,00,000. And the same has been done for the others as well.
Match fee
| Track (Category) | AB | A | BC | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 15,00,000 | 15,00,000 | 9,00,000 | 7,00,000 |
| ODI | 7,50,000 | 6,50,000 | 7,50,00 | 5,00,000 |
| T20I | 5,00,000 | 4,50,000 | 5,00,000 | 5,00,000 |
Monthly retainers
| Track | Tier | Monthly retainer |
|---|---|---|
| AB | 1 2 | 48,00,000 38,00,000 |
| A | 1 2 | 40,00,000 36,00,000 |
| BC | 1 2 | 34,00,000 26,00,000 |
| C | 1 2 | 26,00,000 20,00,000 |
| D | — | 10,00,000 |
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