The shortlived history of the Pakistan Junior League continues to get muddy with the players reportedly still awaiting payments on their contracts by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
The issue was brought out into the open by the captain of the Gwadar Sharks Shamyl Hussain, whose side was beaten in the final of the only edition of the PJL, who claimed that the players are yet to receive any payments during a hotly debated Twitter post by former Chairman of the PCB Ramiz Raja.
“It is so sad that PJL has fallen to vendetta politics & rolled back even though 7 of the kids made it to PSL 8 emerging category & 3 are part of Pak vs NZ as reserves,” Ramiz had tweeted.
The news of the non-payments comes as a surprise to many as Pakistan Junior League was the brainchild of the former head of PCB who went to great lengths to divert funding to the league.
Ramiz also helped PJL survive several setbacks but the cost of holding the event ballooned to almost 1 billion PKR with 440 million reserved for salaries.
The high cost and low yield was the primary reason that the new Management Committee decided to axe the project in favour of revising the “home and away” series to find new talent.
However, domestic players have also not been paid so far this season due to the turbulence in the governing body which means that the matter will be resolved soon.
Pakistan Junior League’s only season was played in October 2022 with Bahawalpur Royals winning the competition.
