LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has offered $50,000 (Rs. 1 crore) to the mentors for the Pakistan Junior League (PJL) including Javed Miandad, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, and Daren Sammy.
It is expected that the remaining mentors will also take home the same amount of money for mentoring their respective PJL teams. Thus, mentors alone will earn more than Rs. 7 crore from a 2-week event.
When inquired about this, PCB Media Director Sami Ul Hasan said that the fees being paid to the mentors is a matter which should be only kept between PCB and the mentors. Sami refused to comment further on the matter.
According to the details, PCB chairman Ramiz Raja’s dream project PJL will start from October 1. Javed Miandad has been appointed as league’s mentor whereas Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, and Daren Sammy have been appointed as the mentors of the teams.
The PCB, however, is finding it difficult to find foreign mentors due to ICC T20 World Cup being held in the same time window as the PJL.
The decision to bring in big names as mentors was to make the PJL more commerically viable. It will be used as a selling point to generate more interest.
In addition to serving as the mentors, Miandad, Afridi, Malik, and Sammy will also act as event ambassadors to help promote the game and help the youngsters along the way.
The PJL project is a brainchild of Ramiz Raja and it is expected that the league will continue to blossom under his guidance but if he is replaced as PCB chairman, the league’s future might hang in balance.
