Pakistan cricketers fined after failing to reach Twenty20 World Cup semifinals – Report

The Pakistan Cricket Board has reportedly fined players around $18,000 each after the team failed to qualify for Twenty20 World Cup semifinals.

PCB “officials have clearly told the players that enough pampering has been done — from now on, financial benefits will only come with performance,” the Express Tribune reported Tuesday.

According to the report, the PCB decided to fine the players after Pakistan lost a group-stage match to archrival India on Feb. 15. However, after the team qualified for the Super Eight stage the players were told the fine could be waived if Pakistan reached the semifinals.

Pakistan needed to beat co-host Sri Lanka by 65 runs in the last group match to qualify for final four ahead of New Zealand, but instead it narrowly scraped to a five-run win.

The report said PCB officials told the playing group that if they accepted rewards for good performances, “they must also pay penalties for poor ones.”

The fines reportedly included at least one outstanding performer — Sahibzada Farhan — who broke India great Virat Kohli’s record for most runs in a T20 World Cup and finished the tournament with 383 runs, featuring two centuries and two half centuries.

The sport’s national governing body did not respond to a request for comment.

It was the fourth successive major ICC tournament where Pakistan has missed the semifinals. Pakistan also hasn’t beaten India in a major event since 2022.

Soon after losing the last year’s Asia Cup final to India, the PCB briefly suspended permission for players participating in T20 leagues around the world but later allowed the players to compete in tournaments like Australia’s Big Bash.

Last year, the PCB abolished category A in its list of 30 centrally contracted players, and demoted both Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam in category B.

Source: AP
--Agencies