Hafeez is Pakistan’s highest-earning cricketer

LAHORE: There are much bigger stars in Pakistan cricket than him but when it comes to making money, Mohammad Hafeez is way ahead of his compatriots.

According to a report, the seasoned batsman was the highest earning Pakistani cricketer in 2015-16 after he took home approximately Rs39 million as earnings from the Cricket Board (PCB).

According to documents sent by the PCB to the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Co-ordination for the fiscal year 2015-16, it paid some 46 cricketers around Rs550 million as their fees and bonuses for all formats of the game.

Not surprisingly the players representing Pakistan in all three formats have earned the highest money in the last fiscal year.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed earned around Rs33 million. In contrast flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi, who now represents Pakistan in only T20 cricket, earned approximately Rs18 million.

The documents confirm that the PCB is also heavily subsidising domestic cricket.

The list of the top earning players includes national One-Day captain Azhar Ali (30 million rupees), Younis Khan (24 million), Misbah-ul Haq (24 million), Ahmed Shehzad (28 million), Wahab Riaz (29 million), Shoaib Malik (26 million), Asad Shafiq (20 million), Rahat Ali (17 million), Mohammad Irfan (15 million), Umar Akmal (18 million), Junaid Khan (13 million), Zulfiqar Babar (11 million), Anwar Ali (12 million), Mohammad Rizwan (14 million).

Some of these players have faced problems with the federal taxation and revenue officials over not disclosing their full earnings or non-payment of wealth taxes.

The PCB has been increasing the players fees and monthly central contract retainers since the last two years.