LAHORE: In a significant development, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to review its policy regarding player agents each of whom will now have a maximum of two to three players at a time as their corporate clients.

Player agents in the present corporate world manage the terms and conditions for signing on behalf of players all kinds of agreements with T20 leagues or advertising companies.

The issue of player agents arose recently when the PCB came to know that eight players of Pakistan’s national team had only one agent Talha Rahmani, working under SAYA Corporation, which also had previous chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq as one of its directors, which forced it to review the policy.

According to sources, the PCB has considered restricting the number of players to two or minimum to three to have the same agent. The PCB reckons if eight players get affiliated with one agent, it will be easy for their agents to involve them in wrong practices such as match-fixing and spot-fixing etc.

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam had to resign during this year’s 50-over World Cup after the issue of player agents surfaced as the PCB claimed that was conflict of interest.

However, it is learnt that the work on the review is going at a snail’s pace as the player power is not happy at the PCB move.

Moreover, the players and some officials in the incumbent PCB believe the Board’s Interim Management Committee chairman Zaka Ashraf has little time left in office as his second tenure which is non-extendable, according to the prime minister’s notification issued on Nov 4 for a three-month period is ending on Feb 3. Therefore, they are not taking this review regarding player agents seriously.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2023