Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the list of players who have been awarded central contracts for the coming year.
The new contracts will come into effect from the 1st of July.
As announced earlier in its BoG meeting, PCB, for the first time ever, has introduced separate contracts for white-ball and red-ball cricket.
A total of 33 players, 13 more than the previous season, have received contracts for the next 12 months.
Pakistan’s all-format captain Babar Azam as well as Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi have been granted central contracts for both red and white-ball cricket by the PCB.
10 players have been granted an exclusive red-ball contract with Azhar Ali being promoted to Category A, Abdullah Shafique, and Naseem Shah have been placed in Category C for the first time along with Saud Shakeel, who has been awarded Category D.
Fawad Alam and Nauman Ali have been retained in Category B and C, respectively, whereas Abid Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shan Masood, and Yasir Shah have been handed Category D contracts.
Eleven limited-over specialists have been awarded white-ball exclusive contracts.
Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan, who were in Category B in 2021-22, have been awarded Category A contracts, while Haris Rauf has been promoted to Category B. Mohammad Nawaz has been retained in Category C.
Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir have been promoted from Emerging to Category D where they are joined by first-timers Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, and Zahid Mehmood.
In the Emerging Category, the PCB as part of its strategy to encourage, develop and incentivize up-and-coming domestic performers, has increased the number of players from three to seven.
Players getting contracts in the Emerging Category include Ali Usman, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Huraira, Qasim Akram, and Salman Ali Agha.
Some of the salient features of the new central contracts are:
- 10 percent increase in match fees across all formats
- Increase in match fee for non-playing members from 50 percent to 70 percent of the overall match fee
- Introduction of a captaincy allowance to compensate the team captain for the additional responsibilities that come with that role
