Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will award central contracts to as many as 30 cricketers after the conclusion of upcoming England tour. The central contracts are due to expire on June 30 and the PCB may award new contracts to players for six month period (July 1 to December 31, 2016) with 10 to 15% raise," sources in the PCB said.
The contract to players will be awarded keeping in view their performance in the forthcoming England series. Young cricketers, who performed well in domestic cricket, would also be given central contracts, the sources added. It may be noted that for FY 2015-16, the PCB awarded 27 players central contracts in four categories as follow: Category 'A' (6)-Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan; Category 'B' (8)-Ahmed Shehzad, Asad Shafiq, Junaid Khan, Rahat Ali, Saeed Ajmal, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah; Category 'C' (8)-Anwar Ali, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaan Masood, Umar Akmal and Category 'D' (5)-Babar Azam, Sami Aslam, Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Amin, Zulfiqar Babar.