CAN becomes first board to include 30 male cricketers on their central contract

By Cricketing Country | Posted Posted Mar 07, 2024

The Cricket Association of Nepal became the first cricketing board to hand the central contract to 30 men’s cricketers.

The cricketing governing body of Nepal updated the list of their centrally contracted players on 26th February 2024, for this season with 30 male and 19 female players.

Only the Board of Control for Cricket in India is along with CAN with 30 male cricketers on their annual contract. The BCCI enlisted the 30-player pool in their latest update on 28th February, two days after CAN became the first board to do so. They had 26 men’s cricketers on their previous contract with the highest of 28 in the 2020-21 season.

The third and fourth in the list with the highest men’s players pool in the central contract are Cricket Sri Lanka and England Cricket Board with 29 cricketers respectively.

Considering the overall (Men’s & Women’s) pool in the central contract, the CAN is ranked number second after Sri Lanka with 49 cricketers. Cricket Sri Lanka currently consists of 64 cricketers in the annual central contract.

In terms of the biggest Women’s cricketers pool in the central contract, Nepal is only behind Sri Lanka (35), Bangladesh (25), and Pakistan (20).

The highest-paid men’s cricketers in Nepal will be rewarded with 1.2 million annually while the women’s cricketer of the same grade will get 0.6 million per annum. The difference is surely among the least marginal in the cricketing world with no proper data to justify its rank.