Islamabad, Aug 8: The Pakistan Cricket Board awarded Category A contracts to spinners Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Rehman on Monday in a new list of 28 centrally-contracted players until the end of the year.
Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan's captain for all three formats, former skipper Younis Khan, fast bowler Umar Gul and opening batsman Mohammad Hafeez also received contracts in the top category.
Details of the new contracts, which run from July 1 to Dec. 31, were not revealed. But Category A was worth $2,900 a month in the contracts that ran until the end of June, with $2,100 for Category B and $1,200 for Category C.
Allrounder Abdul Razzaq was given a B contract, while World Cup wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal was dropped from the list altogether after struggling to get back into the team since the tournament.
PCB national game development manager Intikhab Alam said that discipline and performance were the main things in awarding the contracts.
Opening batsman Imran Farhat and left-arm fast bowler Sohail Tanvir were awarded Category B contracts after both missed the World Cup due to form and fitness, respectively.
Both southpaws had been named in the squads for next month's one-off test, three ODIs and two Twenty20s against Zimbabwe.
Middle-order batsmen Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq also got Category B contracts along with fast bowler Wahab Riaz and another left-handed opening batsman, Taufeeq Umar.
Fast bowlers Junaid Khan, Tanvir Ahmed and Sohail Khan were named in Category C, which also features young allrounder Hammad Azam and wicketkeepers Sarfraz Ahmed and Adnan Akmal.
In order to encourage youngsters, the PCB will give undisclosed monthly stipends to five players—pacemen Mohammad Talha and Aizaz Cheema, spinner Raza Hasan, and Zulfiqar Babar and Mohammad Ayub Dogar.
PCB contracted players:
Category A: Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Gul, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman
Category B: Abdul Razzaq, Imran Farhat, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Wahab Riaz, Taufeeq Umar
Category C: Junaid Khan, Tanvir Ahmed, Hammad Azam, Safraz Ahmed, Sohail Khan, Adnan Akmal, Yasir Shah, Ramiz Raja, Sharjeel Khan
Stipends: Mohammad Talha, Aizaz Cheema, Zulfiqar Babar, Raza Hasan, Mohammad Ayub Dogar. AP
