PCB provides financial help to first-class cricketers

On Sunday, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced to assist cricketers and technical officials in the country, other than contractual ones, demonstrating a sympathetic attitude, as they face a financial crisis following a complete halt in sporting activities due to the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

PCB provides financial help to first-class cricketers and other stakeholders in the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdown. The situation forced all domestic and international cricket to be suspended.

It can be noted here that as a consequence of PCB’s decision to leave departmental cricket, a large number of first-class cricketers had already become unemployed. The PCB has given the central contract to six players from provincial teams, of which the total is around 2015, including players from Pakistan. But as domestic cricket activities have also stopped due to Covid-19, many scorers, umpires, cricketers, and groundstaff members face a financial crisis with no regular income.

Meanwhile, PCB chairman Ehsan Mani said, “The PCB feels it has a duty of care towards its stakeholders and, as such, it’s imperative that we stand by our people throughout the lockdown span and help them in the leading up to Eid-ul-Fitr. In this hour of need, it was a good time to support cricketers, match officials, scorers, and grounds staff.

This is the latest initiative by PCB to make a contribution in these difficult times after it had previously contributed more than Rs10 million to the Covid-19 Pandemic Relief Fund of the Prime Minister, with half of the portion coming from the centrally contracted cricketers and staff members of the Board.

In March, the PCB converted Karachi’s Hanif Mohammad High-Performance Center into a sanctuary for paramedics, operating in the nearby Expo Center in a temporary hospital.