Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) requests Yuvraj Singh to come out of retirement

Former veteran Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh is the first player to have received a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to participate in the overseas leagues.

Last year on June 10, Yuvraj had announced his retirement from all the formats of the game including domestic cricket and Indian Premier League (IPL) after having almost 20 years of experience in international cricket.

Following his retirement, the swashbuckling batsman became the first Indian to participate in the Global T20 Canada league. After the Canadian league, the all-rounder flew to Abu Dhabi where he represented Maratha Arabians in the T10 league.

Puneet Bali, the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) secretary now has urged the all-rounder to come out of retirement and play for the state in the upcoming domestic season. Yuvraj would need written permission from the BCCI in case he decides to take up the offer.

The Punjab team has lost a number of key players to other states in recent years like Manan Vohra and Barinder Sran to Chandigarh, Jiwanjot Singh to Chattisgarh and Taruwar Kohli to Meghalaya. The team management believes that having an experienced player like Yuvraj in their team would help them in building it from scratch.

Last month, after there was some relaxation in lockdown rules, the Punjab Stalwart helped youngsters namely Shubman Gill, Prabhsimran Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Abhishek Sharma and Harpreet Brar, all of whom are set to feature in IPL 2020, train behind closed doors at PCA’s upcoming international stadium in Mullanpur, near Chandigarh.

“The request I made was for him to consider playing all formats. But if he comes back to and says, he’s available only for limited-overs cricket, for some reason, that will be fine too. I’m looking forward to hearing from him soon. But as such, he’s been working hard with the boys,” Puneet said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

PCA to offer state contracts to their players

PCA has decided to offer state contracts to its players in order to provide them with some kind of financial stability. As of now the domestic cricketers earn a match fee of INR 35,000 per match day (for days’ cricket) and share among themselves 10.40 per cent of the BCCI’s annual media rights income.

The contract list will likely come into force from October 1, 2020, and the contracts for this season will go upto April 30, 2021. Similar to the national contracts offered by the BCCI, the men’s category will have three grades- A, B, C; with 10 players in every category.

The players belonging to grade A and B will receive an amount of INR 8 lakh and INR 6 lakh per annum respectively. Category C will comprise U-19 players who will be given a monthly remuneration of Rs 10,000 each.

The women cricketers will also be divided into three grades. However, unlike men players, Group A and B will have three players each while Group C will comprise 4 players.

“We had a discussion in November last year, and then February, and then things came to a standstill due to the pandemic, but we’ve more or less formalised it now. The men’s list has been drawn up. We’re waiting for our women’s squads to be picked before finalising the contracts in that category,” Bali added.

Welcoming this decision by PCA, the state captain Mandeep Singh stated, “This will motivate players, especially those who don’t have IPL contracts. This is a welcome step, it will provide a lot of players financial stability.”