Senior players ignored again as PCB announces central contracts

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has ignored many senior players as it announced an ‘enhanced and performance-based’ central contract on Friday.

The contracts were announced following approval from the Board of Governors (BoG) on 2021-22 fiscal year’s budget in a meeting on June 30.

A special panel comprising Director – International Cricket, Zakir Khan, chief selector Muhammad Wasim and Director – High Performance, Nadeem Khan finalized the list. Head coach Misbah ul Haq and captain Babar Azam were also consulted before it was shared with Chief Executive Wasim Khan, and Chairman Ehsan Mani for approval.

Twenty players across four categories, A, B, C, and Emerging, have been given one-year contracts that will stretch from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022.

Here is the complete list:

Category A – Babar Azam, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi

Category B – Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Fawad Alam, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah

Category C – Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Nauman Ali and Sarfaraz Ahmed

Emerging Category – Imran Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir

Two players, Hasan Ali, and Mohammad Rizwan have been promoted to Category A. Hasan had missed out on the contract list last year due to an injury, but returned to the list on the back of his stellar performances in the 2020-21 season. Rizwan has been rewarded for his consistent performance across all formats by moving him from Category B to Category A.

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Likewise, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Nawaz and Nauman Ali have also been offered central contracts following their significant performances in red-ball and white ball crickets last season.

Haris Rauf and Mohammad Hasnain, who were in the Emerging Category last year, have been promoted to Category C, while youngsters Imran Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir have been placed in Emerging Category.

Players who missed out on the contracts include seasoned batsman Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, fast bowler Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Shan Masood and Usman Shinwari.

Former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has been demoted to Category C from B, while seasoned all-rounders Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik have been ignored once again.