Reports | Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz and Amir to receive Category A match fees
Mohammad Hafeez is part of the 35-squad for the tour of New Zealand
|@Getty
According to reports, PCB has agreed to offer Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz, and Mohammad Amir Category A match fees due to their seniority. While Hafeez and Malik lost the contract due to bad performances, Amir and Riaz were demoted to Category C after their retirement from Tests.
Last year, both Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez came under the scanner for their dismal performances, and with age not being on their side, they both were dropped from the central-contracts list in 2019. While Malik has continued to struggle, Hafeez, who prolonged his retirement after T20 World Cup got postponed, has delivered strong performances over the past year, making him involved in the scheme of things of the national side.
On the other hand, both Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz were demoted to category C in 2019 after they retired from Test cricket last year citing workload management to extend their white-ball careers with Pakistan. To add to that, both struggled to make their way in the team this year.
However, now in a surprising revelation, PCB has agreed to offer all four players preferential treatment, which results in them receiving Category A match fees for representing Pakistan in any format despite not being in the central contract list, as reported by ESPNcricinfo. According to the report, the PCB approved this because all four had requested the PCB to make an exemption because they were senior players.
"The four players made a logical and reasonable request to the PCB prior to the Zimbabwe series," a PCB spokesman said as quoted by ESPNcrininfo.
"The PCB, taking into consideration their seniority and accepting that their request has merit, agreed to pay their match fees in accordance with Category A scales for all matches they will play from the series against Zimbabwe until 30 June 2021."
While Riaz and Hafeez are among the 35-man squad selected for the tour of New Zealand, which consists of the senior teams of all formats as well as the Pakistan A team, Malik and Amir failed to make into the squad.
