Daily Times

KARACHI: Batsmen Umar Akmal and Ahmad Shahzad have been dropped to category D, the lowest level of central contracts, by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) while Shahid Afridi, Junaid Khan and Fawad Alam have been cut from the contracted list of players altogether. Legspinner Yasir Shah and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed have been awarded category-A contracts. The PCB announced on Thursday the list of 30 players given contracts valid from October 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. There are major changes to the contracts list from the previous year. Mohammad Amir has been given a new category-B contract. Afridi was in the A-list last year but has not been given a contract this time. Junaid and Saeed Ajmal have not been given a contract, after being in the B category last year. Offspinner Ajmal lost his place after his remodelled action saw him left out of the team since May last year. Ajmal’s bowling action was reported for chucking in July 2014 and cleared last year but his new action left him less effective.

Yasir and Sarfraz are new additions in the A list. Shahzad has been dropped from category B to D. Fawad had a category-C contract last year, but has been dropped from this year’s list. Umar and Anwar Ali have been dropped from category C to D. Babar Azam, Imad Wasim and Sami Aslam have moved up from category D to C. Sohaib Maqsood and Umar Amin have been dropped, having been in category D last year. Hasan Ali, Khalid Latif, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sohail Khan and Sohail Tanvir are new in category C, after not getting contracts last year. Mohammad Asghar has been given a category D contract. He was not in the list last year.

Category A: Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbahul Haq, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah

Category B: Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Amir

Category C: Haris Sohail, Mohammad Rizwan, Imran Khan, Shan Masood, Mohammad Irfan, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Khalid Latif, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir

Category D: Anwar Ali, Zulfiqar Babar, Mohammad Asghar, Ahmad Shahzad, Umar Akmal.