LAHORE: The umpires on the domestic circuit of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and those who conducted the National U-19 Inter-district Championship matches that ended on June 27 this year, have not yet received their salaries for the month of August and match fees for conducting the U-19 matches, respectively.

“For the last three months we have not received our payments from the

PCB, which has made it very hard for us to make both ends meet,” the affected umpires told Dawn.

“We spent our travelling expenses from our pockets to conduct the U-19 matches across the country. But we, despite contacting the PCB officials concerned time and again, have not received our payments,” they added.

To make matters worse for the umpires concerned, the monthly stipends of domestic umpires for the month of August have not been given yet.

The grim situation has exponentially increased the financial hardship of the affected umpires on the domestic circuit, who are now required to supervise the matches of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and the Hanif Mohammad Trophy starting on Sept 10.

Meanwhile when contacted, the PCB media department claimed that the system was coming back on track after changes at the helm were made in the PCB from June.

“The PCB is aware of the break in [the] payments to domestic umpires. Hopefully, all their dues will be cleared in the coming week,” the media department added.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2023