Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah and Shan Masood miss out on central contracts; Rizwan promoted to Category A
Abbas has not been offered a central contract by the PCB
|The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the Menâs central contract list for the 2021/22 season, which sees Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Shan Masood, Haider Ali and Asad Shafiq miss out on contracts. Meanwhile, the duo of Hasan Ali and Mohammad Rizwan have been promoted to Category A.
A host of senior players and up-and-coming youngsters have missed out on a central contract for the 2021/22 season as the PCBâs centrally contracted player list has no place for Asad Shafiq, Haider Ali, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Shan Masood and Usman Shinwari. Each of the nine aforementioned players held contracts for the 2020/21 season, with Shafiq, Sohail, Abbas and Masood even finding themselves in the B category.
However, in what has come as a major clean-up, the PCB has chosen to not offer contracts for any of the nine players, all of whom have seen themselves sway out of the selectorsâ plans. But despite the contract snub, PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan has claimed that the door is still âfirmlyâ open for the nine players, with respect to selection.
âIn the new list, we have seen eight new players emerge who have now gained central contracts. Due to the competitive nature of the central contract system nine players who had contracts in 2020-21 have sadly missed out on this occasion. The door remains firmly open for these players and they will continue to remain in the plans of the selectors,â Khan said, in a statement released by the PCB.
Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Nawaz and Nauman Ali are among eight new additions to the centrally contracted list, with Imran Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir also finding themselves in the âEmerging Categoryâ. Mohammad Rizwan and Hasan Ali have been promoted to Category A, while Azhar Ali has seen himself fall into the B category. Haris Rauf and Mohammad Hasnain are also among those who have climbed up the ladder, with the duo getting making a jump to the C category (from Emerging).Â
Menâs central contract list 2021-22 is (reduced from 21 to 20):
Category A â Babar Azam, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi
Category B â Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Fawad Alam, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah
Category C â Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Nauman Ali and Sarfaraz Ahmed
Emerging Category â Imran Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir
Hike for contracted players
There has also been an increase in match fees for the bottom three categories (B, C and Emerging), while players in all four categories have been offered increased retainer fees.
"25 per cent increase in Category A retainer; no increase in Test, ODI and T20I match fee.
25 per cent increase in Category B retainer; Test match fee increased by 15 per cent, ODI match fee increased by 20 per cent and T20I match fee increased by 25 per cent.
25 per cent increase in Category C retainer; 34 per cent increase in Test match fee, 50 per cent increase in ODI match fee, 67 per cent increase in T20I match fee.
15 per cent increase in Emerging Category retainer; 34 per cent increase in Test match fee, 50 per cent increase in ODI match fee, 67 per cent increase in T20I match fee," PCB further stated in the release.
