Malik and Hafeez Likely to Lose Their Central Contracts

Longest-serving players in the current Pakistan cricket team, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez, are expected to lose their central contracts for the 2019-20 season.

The PCB management is reportedly going to meet on Thursday to discuss the names of players who will be awarded central contracts.

The meeting will be chaired by PCB Managing Director Wasim Khan, who will consult Zakir Khan (ICC Secretary), Mudassar Nazar (Director of Academies), Haroon Rashid (Director of Domestic Cricket) and Mickey Arthur (Head Coach).

Reports suggest that apart from Malik and Hafeez, four to five additional regular candidates will also miss out on central contracts.

As previously reported by ProPakistani, PCB has decided to cut down the total number of centrally contracted players from 33 to 15-17. In addition to that, the Category E will also be abolished.

Due to this, the PCB will be able to increase the player’s monthly remuneration along with their match fees per game by an additional 20 percent.

Current Centrally Contracted Players (2018-2019):

• Category A:
  • Azhar Ali, Shoaib Malik, Sarfaraz 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 Shinwari, Shan Masood, Imad Wasim
• Category D:
  • Rumman Raees, Asif Ali, Rahat Ali, Hussain Talat, Usman Salahuddin
• Category E:
  • Bilal Asif, Saad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi, Sahibzada Farhan, Umaid Asif, Mir Hamza

Expected Centrally Contracted Players (2019-2020):

• Category A:
  • Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Yasir Shah
• Category B:
  • Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir, Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Abbas
• Category C:
  • Mohammad Rizwan, Faheem Ashraf, Asif Ali, Shan Masood, Usman Shinwari