LAHORE – Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has voiced his disapproval of reports suggesting that white-ball captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan might be demoted from their central contract category following their early exit from the T20 World Cup 2024.
“As I have said before, this is a knee-jerk reaction, and you cannot improve the standard by increasing or decreasing the pay of the cricketers,” said Ramiz Raja while talking on local TV.
The reaction came after reports emerged that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) might revoke the Category A status of the two players after losses to the USA and India, despite victories over Canada and Ireland.
Raja contended that reducing or withholding players’ salaries is not a path to success.
The former PCB chairman was of the view, “If you decrease or withhold the salary of a workforce, it will result in the workforce leaving the job. It’s a very delicate matter to punish someone by reducing or holding back their salary,”.
He said, “This is beyond me. Cricketers should be paid, simple as that. They have a limited career, and the PCB has a lot to offer to them,”.
Raja stressed that cutting players’ pay as a form of punishment is counterproductive and labeled the demotion discussions as a “knee-jerk reaction” that would not enhance team performance.
