Since the conclusion of the 2019 ICC World Cup, there’s hardly any cricketing decision that has gone Sarfaraz Ahmed’s way. First taken off the captaincy responsibility by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the wicket-keeper batsman then found himself out of the national team too. Now, Sarfaraz is also set to take a significant pay cut, with PCB deciding to change his grade.
The PCB is to announce central contracts for the 2020-21 season but the initial trends do not suggest that it’s a piece of good news for Sarfaraz. As per a report, Sarfaraz, who was given a Grade A contract last time around, will only be handed a Grade C contract this time.
The 2019-20 PCB central contracts saw the board reducing the number of players drastically from 32 to 19, with the likes of Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez being left out. Sarfaraz, however, was placed in Grade A category alongside Babar Azam and Yasir Shah as he was captaining the team in all the three formats.
With captaincy gone and a spot in the national team also looking hard to come by, the stumper is only deemed good for a Grade C contract by the PCB.
“Sarfaraz has been demoted to category C in the new contracts as he is presently not a member of the playing side,” a PCB source said.
The impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the retainers of the players has also been discussed but it seems like the PCB won’t hand any paycuts to the players despite the global catastrophe. In fact, the Test match fee could be increased by the board despite the tricky financial situation. The existing Test match fees for Pakistani players is Rs 762,300 Category A players, Rs 665,280 for Category B and Rs 568,260 for Category C players.
