Punjab Cricket Association offers central contracts to 30 top performing domestic players for 2020-21 season

Chandigarh: The Punjab Cricket Association will be offering central contracts to its 30 top performing domestic players for the 2020-21 season, its secretary Puneet Bali said on Saturday. The first apex council meeting of the association was held on Saturday at PCA stadium at Mohali under the chairmanship of its president Rajinder Gupta. [caption id=“attachment_7019891” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Bali initiated the discussions with the remarks that PCA was going to introduce a “game-changing” system for cricketers. Bali, as per a release, stated that he wanted the PCA to be the pioneer in this process and rolled out the plan for having a central contract system on a yearly basis. The players will be divided into A B and C categories. ‘A’ category will have 10 players, who will be paid Rs 8 lakh per annum, while ‘B’ category will also consist of 10 players and will be paid Rs 6 lakh per annum. The category ‘C’ will comprise another set of 10 players of Under 16 and Under 19, who will be paid a monthly remuneration of Rs 10,000. The players for these central contracts will be chosen on the basis of performance during the cricket season and a sub-committee has been constituted to make the rules and to chalk out the modalities. Bali further announced that a state-of-the-art academy will come up at the PCA stadium.