Deadlock over central contracts between PCB and players

The Pakistan Cricket Board and representatives of the national team players find themselves in a deadlock over the terms and conditions of the new central contracts, to be issued this month.
An official source in the PCB told PTI that one round of talks had been held between senior board officials and the players representatives, Misbah-ul-Haq and Azhar Ali this week, while another round is scheduled for today to end the deadlock.
"The deadlock is over a demand by the players that they be given incentive bonuses for winning both matches as well as series in all three formats," the source said.

"The PCB's contention is that it will continue with the win bonus system included in the last central contracts which included payments for series wins and not individual matches," he disclosed.
The source said Misbah, who is Test captain and Azhar, who leads the ODI squad are both also insisting on increasing the monthly retainers given to players and their match fees.
He explained the PCB was clear that it would give 100 per cent bonus for winning a series in any format if it was against India or the top three teams in the ICC rankings.

"There is a 75 per cent win bonus for winning a series against teams placed from fourth to seventh in the ICC rankings and 50 per cent for teams placed seventh to 10th in the rankings," the source explained.

He said the win bonus percentage was calculated according to the match fees paid to the players in all three formats.
"For example in Test matches, players usually are getting a match fee of 5,00,000 rupees and if they win a Test series against India or the top three teams they will be paid 100 per cent of the match fee amount as win bonus," he said.
The source said the players, however, are insisting that the board give win bonuses for not only series wins but also individual match wins in all three formats.
"The PCB has argued that win bonus should only be for series because if the team wins one match of a series but loses it eventually why should they get any bonus at all," the source said.

The PCB had decided to extend the 2014 central contracts for the first six months of 2015 due to the World Cup and other assignments.
"The new central contracts now will be from July 1st to June 30th over a 12-month period," he said.