LAHORE: While activities of Pakistan men’s and women’s teams, Shaheens and U-19 players have increased, the number of men and women players in the central contract lists have also risen, the 2025-26 budget documents of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) reveal.

There is also good news for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) employees who will get some increase in their salaries, according to the budget documents.

According to the budget documents, the international series involving seniors, Shaheens, U-19 teams and national women have been increased to 26 from 23 of the last year.

In contrast, the domestic events, both for men and women, have been reduced to 19 from 25 of 2024-25.

Similarly, in the men’s category, the total number of players for the central contracts for the national senior team has been increased to 30 from 25 of the last year which increased the cost by 37 per cent to Rs319 million.

For the national women’s team, the total number of players has been increased to 24 from 16 last year. It resulted in a 121 per cent increase in cost to Rs37.8 million from last year’s cost of Rs69 million.

For men’s domestic events, the cost of the budget has been decreased to 34 per cent as now the figure stands at Rs450 million against Rs684 million allocated last year. Most probably the elimination of the Challenge Cup, an expensive premier event, has been eliminated from the domestic circuit just after one year.

For women’s domestic competitions, the budget has been increased by four per cent as it now stands at Rs37.2 million against Rs35.7 million given last year.

Moreover, Rs444 million in human resource budget for hiring employees, annual salary increase and other staff benefits has been allocated.

However, the details of the increase will be determined at a later stage, according to the budget document.

The PCB is considered a highly paid sporting institution of the country. But last year, no increase was given to the staff while there was no raise in the pension of retired Test cricketers.

Meanwhile, the PCB has announced its financial budget for 2025-26 recently, which like the budget for 2024-25 is yet to be uploaded on its website. Only the budget till 2023-24 period is available on the website.

The budget for 2025-26 is worth Rs18 billion but one becomes worry when the figures of revenue and expenditures of 2025-26 and 2024-25 budgets are compared.

The total revenue in 2024-25 of the PCB was Rs21.81 billion, against expenditures of Rs21.63 billion. But there is a sharp decline in the income shown in the 2025-26 budget, which is Rs16.88 billion against the expenditures of Rs16.85 billion.

In the total budget of Rs18 billion, the PCB has 11 resources to generate revenue against a list of 23 heads in the expenditures.

The main source of estimated revenues will be the International Cricket Council ($25.9 million; approximately Rs7.7 billion) during this fiscal year.

The PCB also expects income of Rs1.16 billion from the forthcoming Asia Cup and Rs7.772 million through international cricket operations. The PCB has also included Rs2.5 billion as expected revenue from the next edition of the Pakistan Super League.

In the prominent expenditure’s list an amount of Rs6 billion has been allocated for the remaining construction work at the Gaddafi Stadium, National Stadium, Karachi and Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi.

It is pertinent to mention here that the PCB started the reconstruction and revamp work at the abovementioned venues at an estimated cost of Rs12 billion on war-footing. However, the cost has soared to Rs18 billion.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2025