Domestic match fees just jumped for the second time this year, and a dormant five-tier contract system is being revived alongside it. Together, the two moves promise the biggest pay overhaul Bangladesh’s first-class and List A players have seen since 2023. Test specialists stand to gain the most from the changes, since the revived structure finally lets red-ball-only cricketers climb into the top salary band, something the previous format split never permitted for players who skip white-ball cricket entirely, and something officials say was overdue after years of flat pay across domestic cricket.
Match Fees Double Overnight In Dhaka
BCB president Tamim Iqbal announced the new fee structure at a press conference in Mirpur on September 3. First-class cricketers now earn BDT 150,000 per match, List A players get BDT 100,000, and domestic T20 fees rise to BDT 80,000. Women’s match fees across all three formats have also doubled.
| Format | Previous Fee | April 2026 (Interim) | September 2026 (Current) | Total Boost |
| Men’s First-Class | BDT 70,000 | BDT 100,000 | BDT 150,000 | up 114% |
| Men’s List A | BDT 50,000 | Unchanged | BDT 100,000 | up 100% |
| Men’s Domestic T20 | BDT 40,000 | Unchanged | BDT 80,000 | up 100% |
| Women’s 4-Day | BDT 20,000 | Unchanged | BDT 40,000 | up 100% |
| Women’s 1-Day | BDT 15,000 | Unchanged | BDT 30,000 | up 100% |
| Women’s T20 | BDT 10,000 | Unchanged | BDT 20,000 | up 100% |
Tamim was blunt about why it took two increases in five months. He said players had been underpaid for years and that the April revision, which raised the first-class fee to BDT 100,000, arrived too late for anyone to actually get paid at that rate since no domestic matches were played before this latest hike.
BCB domestic cricket tier system pay hike JeetBuzz
The April revision also lifted monthly salaries for contracted domestic players. Category A now sits at BDT 65,000 a month, Category B at BDT 50,000, and Category C at BDT 40,000, each roughly double what came before. Women in the top 36 now earn BDT 40,000 monthly, up from BDT 30,000.
BCB director Nazmul Abedin Fahim framed the increases around retention rather than generosity. He said the board wants to protect financial security for cricketers and specifically nurture the players who commit to the longer format instead of chasing franchise T20 deals elsewhere.
The hikes were also announced against a difficult backdrop. The Bangladesh Premier League’s postponement removed a major income stream for many of these same cricketers, and two rounds of talks between the Cricketers Welfare Association and the board preceded September’s announcement.
Central Contracts Follow A Similar Path
Bangladesh’s central contracts, separate from the domestic pay scale above, already run on a four-tier structure introduced earlier in 2026. The top A+ band sits vacant this year, since Fahim’s committee felt no player met the threshold for it.
| Tier | Monthly Salary | Who Qualifies |
| Central A+ | BDT 1,000,000 | Vacant for 2026 |
| Central A | BDT 800,000 | Taskin Ahmed, Shanto, Miraz, Litton |
| Central B | BDT 600,000 | 11 established players, including Mushfiqur and Mominul |
| Central C | BDT 400,000 | 6 developing internationals including Soumya Sarkar |
| Central D | BDT 200,000 | 7 emerging players easing into the setup |
The revived five-tier domestic system runs parallel to this and lets Test-only specialists reach the top band for the first time, something the old white-ball and red-ball split never allowed. Fahim has confirmed exact salary figures exist for each band but declined to publish them, calling the numbers subject to change.
Officials Make Their Case To Players
Tamim was careful to frame this round of hikes as a floor, not a ceiling. He said the board will revisit the numbers again in two years if income allows, acknowledging there are limits to how much can move at once given the BCB’s current finances.
No domestic or first-class cricketer has publicly reacted to the restructuring yet, and only board officials have been quoted on the record so far. That silence from the playing group is notable given how directly the changes affect their livelihoods heading into the new season.
Whatever comes of the unpublished tier figures, the BCB domestic cricket tier system pay hike JeetBuzz already reshapes what a first-class career in Bangladesh is worth, doubling match fees twice in one year while dangling a central-contract pathway for red-ball specialists who previously had no route to the top tier at all.
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