In a landmark decision, the Pakistan Cricket Board has offered contracts to 20 leading women players of the country.
Published: May 15, 2011, 03:18 PM (IST)
Edited: May 15, 2011, 03:18 PM (IST)
Women’s sports in Pakistan never really take off © Getty Images
Lahore: May 15, 2011
In a landmark decision, the Pakistan Cricket Board has offered contracts to 20 leading women players of the country.
The contracts in four categories come as a major boost for women’s cricket in the country which has shown significant improvement in the last two years.
The Pakistan team, in the absence of India, won the Asian Games Twenty20 title in China last year and recently also won a four-nation event in Sri Lanka featuring the hosts, Ireland and Holland.
“The board has selected five girls for the contracts in each category,” a board official said.
He said the payments to be made in the categories were Rs 50,000, Rs 35,000, Rs 20,000 and Rs 10,000.
Women’s sports in Pakistan has never really taken off because of the social and religious taboos surrounding females playing any sports.
“The decision to give contracts will surely be a big step towards further improving our playing standards,” Pakistan captain, Sana Mir said.
The Pakistan women’s team also qualified for the World Cup two years back.
© PTI
