33 cricketers awarded central contract by PCB

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced a list of 33 centrally contracted players for the 2018-19 season, here on Monday.

According to the PCB press release, the names and categories of the players were recommended by the Central Contracts Selection Committee, comprising Director Cricket Operations Haroon Rashid, National Chief Selector Inzamam-ul-Haq and Director Academies Mudassar Nazar.

Chairman PCB Najam Sethi has approved the recommended names of players listed with categories.

The 2017-18 financial year marked the conclusion of a 3-year financial formula agreed between PCB and its players.

The press release said: “In concert with players’ representatives captain Sarfraz Ahmed and senior player Shoaib Malik, PCB is pleased to inform that it has reached a fresh 3-year financial remuneration agreement with its players.

In the new central contracts, PCB has raised the monthly remuneration for each of its categories ranging between 25-30%, and has also increased its players match fees by 20 % across categories. An agreed percentage increase will also be given to the players in years two and three of the new agreement.

A new category "E" has been added to the central contracts to recognize performers on the domestic circuit as well as to encourage the continuing development of emerging cricketers from the junior cricket level.

Following is the list of players with their categories:

Category A: Azhar Ali, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir

Category B: Mohammad Hafeez, Faheem Ashraf, Asad Shafiq, Hasan Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan

Category C: Mohammad Abbas, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Nawaz, Usman Khan Shinwari, Shan Masood, Imad Waseem

Category D: Rumman Raees, Asif Ali, Rahat Ali, Usman Salahuddin, Hussain Talat

Category E: Bilal Asif, Saad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sahibzada Farhan, Umaid Asif, Mir Hamza