Increasing the annual fees for departmental cricket teams is the PCB’s decision.

– The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has doubled annual registration costs for departmental cricket teams and come out with a new policy for departmental cricket contests, which has worried various departments over the increasing financial load.

Grade-I departmental team’s annual cost has been enhanced to Rs15 million while Grade-II Gold and Grade-II Silver teams will have to pay Rs4.2 and Rs4 million correspondingly, the notice said.

The PCB has also set minimum salary standards for players. Under the new regulation, Grade-I departments have to pay at least one player a minimum monthly salary of Rs125,000 or Rs1.5 million yearly.

Gold teams for Grade-II events are to pay players a minimum of Rs75,000 per month and Silver teams Rs50,000 per month minimum. Departments have also been told to sign players to one-year deals.

Several departments have expressed concerns over the hike in annual fees, saying that they already shoulder the entire operating and team-related costs, sources said. The registration price was already increased from Rs3 million to Rs5 million and now the new hike to Rs15 million will put an additional financial burden on the participating departments, they said.

The new policy also includes match fees and daily allowances for the domestic events including President’s Trophy Grade-I First-Class, President’s Cup One-Day and President’s Trophy Grade-II Gold and Silver contests.

Under the new set-up Grade-I players would be entitled for Rs10,000 as match fee and reserve players will be given Rs5,000. A daily allowance of Rs 5,000 has also been approved. The match cost has been determined at Rs5,000 for Grade-II competitions with a daily allowance of Rs4,000.

Meanwhile, the PCB has called a critical meeting on June 29 to examine the implementation of the new departmental cricket strategy and to resolve the concerns made by the departments attending.