Cricket West Indies is offering its contracted and non-contracted players major pay hikes as an incentive to play the upcoming three match T20 International series in Pakistan in April.

The Windies will announce a 13-man squad to tour the subcontinent nation after the conclusion of the ongoing ICC World Cup qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe, where they are in the Super Six.

It is being suggested that the squad is being offered around US$25,000 each for the three matches in Karachi on April 1, 2 and 3. A move that depending on the contract status would see players getting anywhere between 70% more and double what they would ordinarily be paid.

The money comes from a payment made by the Pakistan cricket board to Cricket West Indies as the series falls outside the Future Tours Programme.

According to a PCB official, payment to a touring side by the host board is standard for non-FTP series and one the PCB benefited from in the form of an ODI tour to South Africa in 2013.

The issue of paying players extra to tour Pakistan, which hasn’t hosted regular international cricket since the terror attacks on the Sri Lanka team in 2009, is a delicate one for the PCB.

They paid Zimbabwe’s players US$12,500 each for a tour in 2015, the first by any international team to Pakistan since 2009.

Foreign players were also offered extra money on top of their contracts to play in the PSL final in Lahore last year.

The players that toured Lahore as part of a World XI last September were also paid by the PCB.