The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday omitted former captain Shoaib Malik, wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria from the list of 28 new centrally contracted players for a six-month period from July to December this year.
Published: Aug 08, 2011, 06:51 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 08, 2011, 06:51 PM (IST)
Kamran Akmal received lot of flak due to his poor wicketkeeping in the 2011 World Cup © Getty Images
Lahore: Aug 8, 2011
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday omitted former captain Shoaib Malik, wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria from the list of 28 new centrally contracted players for a six-month period from July to December this year.
The Board also did not award central contracts to the likes of former limited-over skipper Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar as they have announced their retirements from international cricket.
Malik, Akmal and Kaneria have not been considered for contracts as they have not been cleared of match-fixing.
Malik and Kaneria are scheduled to appear before the integrity committee of the board on August 15 to get their names cleared.
Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman, Umar Gul and Mohammad Hafeez have all been placed in category ‘A’ and will get a monthly salary of 250,000 rupees.
Allrounder Abdul Razzaq, who has not been selected for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe, Taufiq Umar, Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Imran Farhat, Sohail Tanvir and Wahab Riaz have been awarded category ‘B’ contract with a monthly salary of 175,000 rupees.
Besides, there are a number of surprise inclusions also in the list, such as uncapped leg-spinner Yasir Shah and batsman Sharjeel Khan, who have been given category ‘C’ contracts.
Apart from Yasir and Sharjeel, seven other players — Junaid Khan, Tanvir Ahmed, Hammad Azam, wicketkeepers – Adnan Akmal and Sarfaraz Ahmed, Sohail Khan and Rameez Raja — have also been given category ‘C’ contract with a monthly salary of 100,000 rupees.
The board also announced that pacers — Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Talha, spinners — Zulfiqar Babar, Raza Hasan and Ayub Dogar would get stipends.
Surprise omissions are Ahmad Shahzad, who was a member of the squad that played in the World Cup and toured the West Indies and Khurrum Manzoor, who has been a prolific scorer on domestic circuit and in his last Test appearance against Australia at Hobart scored 70 odd runs.
List of contracted players:
Category A: Younis Khan, Misbah-Ul-Haq, Umar Gul, Muhammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman.
Category B: Abdul Razzaq, Imran Farhat, Sohail Tanveer, Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Wahab Riaz, Taufiq Umar.
Category C: Junaid Khan, Tanvir Ahmed, Hammad Azam, Sarfraz Ahmad, Sohail Khan, Adnan Akmal, Yasir Shah, Rameez Raja, Sharjeel Khan.
© PTI
