Lahore, Jun 26 (IANS): The Board of Governors of the Pakistan Cricket Board has approved a 7.76 billion Pakistani rupees operating expenditure budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year, which is a 10 per cent reduction from the 2019-20 budget.

On Friday morning, the PCB BoG held their second meeting of the year, 58th overall, via a videoconference under the chairmanship of Ehsan Mani.

In a media release, the PCB further said it has allocated 71.2 per cent of the overall budget for cricket-related activities. "This is to ensure that despite tough financial situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cricket remains unaffected and the PCB continues to invest in the future."

During the meeting, PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan briefed the BoG on the new 12-month merit-based domestic player contracts for the 2020-21 season which will come into effect from August 1.

According to the new monthly retainer structure, the PCB will again offer 192 leading domestic players (32 from each of the six cricket associations) performance-based contracts, but instead of paying a flat monthly retainer of PKR 50,000 to all players, this season slab-wise payments will be made.

Meanwhile, the PCB further informed the BoG that it was planning to stage the remaining four matches of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) later in the year, while it plans to add a fifth venue in Peshawar for the 2021 edition, which is scheduled to be held in February and March 2021.

During the meeting, Mani also said he has raised the visa issues for Pakistan cricket teams for the upcoming ICC events in India. On the ACC, the chairman confirmed the PCB has offered Sri Lanka Cricket to swap the ACC T20 Cup, with the ACC Board expected to make the decision in due course.