Pakistan's fringe cricketers fear big financial losses if county cricket gets cancelled

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the world and has brought an end to all sporting activities at the moment. Cricket boards all around the world have been affected by the coronavirus crisis. The England Cricket Board (ECB) is also one of the boards who have taken a hit during these trying times. Now, the English domestic season is in great danger of being completely called off.

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Pakistan's domestic players set to incur huge financial losses

Over the years, cricketers from around the world have utilized English county cricket to not just learn more about the game and be self-sufficient as a person, but also earn more with the British pounds on offer. In modern times, the one country which has players relying on it all the more is Pakistan. A number of Pakistan cricketers are dependent on the English season for their incomes by playing cricket for various clubs and coaching them. And if the season gets cancelled, it will hurt them financially since the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) does not offer them great incentives financially.

There are more than two dozen Pakistan cricketers who travel to the UK for full seasons where they earn between £4,500 (₹4.22 lakh) and £15,000 ($14.03 lakh). These cricketers aren't a part of the national set-up in Pakistan. Some of the prominent names among these cricketers include Qaiser Abbas, Shahid Yousaf, Mansoor Amjad, Nayyar Abbas and Waqas Maqsood.

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While speaking to ESPNcricinfo, one of the cricketers Mansoor Amjad said that for years, players like him who probably haven't got a future with the national team, have been playing league cricket in England. Amjad added that it has been their livelihood and with this coronavirus pandemic, they won't able to travel to England to fulfil their contracts.

Amjad further said that the number of players playing league cricket might have come down over the years because of Pakistan's inconsistent domestic scheduling, but there are still over 30-40 cricketers making money from playing in the UK. Amjad acknowledged that he knows this is a worldwide crisis and it's inevitable many will suffer from it too. He added that these are indeed testing times and also a learning curve for the national board to understand the importance of cricket for players' livelihoods.

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Amjad also said that there were so many players who lost their job after the new structure in PCB's new domestic cricket was introduced and now this pandemic took away their alternatives too. He added that he doesn't know what will happen next, but there are so many other young players who had been relying heavily on playing in these leagues and now they have nothing either at home or abroad.

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IMAGE COURTESY: PTI