The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced the list of centrally contracted players for the 2020-21 season. A lot of changes were made this time around compared to the previous year and big ones among them were Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir and Hasan Ali’s axing. The likes of Shaheen Afridi, Iftikhar Ahmed and Azhar Ali among others were also rewarded for their efforts in the previous season.

A total of 18 players have been divided into three categories – A, B and C. Pakistan’s captains Babar Azam and Azhar Ali along with Shaheen Afridi have made it to the top category while the other nine and six players are the part of the B and C categories respectively. There are perks of being part of the ‘A’ category as the cricketers earn more and for the 2020-21 season, they will be earning 13.2 Million PKR (INR 62.40 lakh approximately) annually.

As for the players in the B and C category, they will be 9 Million PKR (INR 42.57 lakh) and 6.6 Million PKR (Rs 31.22 lakh) annually respectively according to Times Now.

How much BCCI pays for its centrally contracted players?

There is no doubt about the fact that BCCI is the richest board in world cricket. It pays its players heavily as well and there is always an excitement about the salaries of the players. The Indian board has divided its centrally contracted players in four categories – A+, A, B and C. Cricketers part of the team in all formats, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah, are part of the top category and they earn Rs 7 crore annually.

On the other hand, the rest of the players in A, B and C categories are paid Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively. When the salaries paid to the India and Pakistan players as per their central contract were compared, then an interesting thing was revealed. The amount India’s top category (A+) players earn individually is roughly the total amount PCB spends on its centrally contracted players.

According to PCB’s latest contract details, they will pay a total of INR 7.5 crore to 18 players for 2020-21 season. On the other, the BCCI pays a whopping amount of INR 7 crore individually to the players in A+ category. Overall, the Indian board spends INR 99 crore on its 27 contracted players.

Here’s the detailed comparison:

PCB’s Central Contract for 2020-21

PCB Central Contracts (2020-21)
Grade	Annual retainership (INR)	Players
A	62.44 lakh	Babar Azam, Azhar Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi
B	42.57 lakh	Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Abbas, Shadab Khan, Abid Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shan Masood, Yasir Shah
C	31.22 lakh	Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Naseem Shah, Iftikhar Ahmed, Usman Shinwari

BCCI’s central contracts for 2019-20 season

(BCCI’s 2019-20 season contract expires in October)

BCCI Central Contracts (2019-20)
Grade	Annual retainership (INR)	Players
A+	7 crore	Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
A	5 crore	Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant
B	3 crore	Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal
C	1 crore	Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar