The Pakistan men’s cricket team is expected to receive their central contracts for the 2023-24 season next week. The contracts, which initially expired on June 30, were extended for a month due to uncertainties surrounding the chairmanship in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The PCB Cricket Committee Chairman, Misbah-ul-Haq, will be briefed about the central contracts in the coming days.
Upon approval from PCB Management Committee Chairman Zaka Ashraf, the central contracts will be officially awarded to the players. During the recently-concluded Test tour of Sri Lanka, PCB Head of International Cricket, Usman Wahla, and Chief Operating Officer (COO), Salman Naseer, met with Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam and other senior players to discuss the central contracts.
The new central contracts are likely to include a 25 to 35 percent increase in retainers and match fees for the players.
In addition to the central contracts, the policy for issuing No Objection Certificates (NOC) for league cricket is also expected to be revised.
For the 2022-23 season, the Pakistan men’s central contracts were categorized as follows:
RED AND WHITE-BALL CONTRACTS (5):
Category A: Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi Category B (Red-ball): Hasan Ali Category B (White-ball): Imam-ul-Haq Category C (Red-ball): Imam-ul-Haq Category C (White-ball): Hasan Ali
RED BALL CONTRACTS (10):
Category A: Azhar Ali Category B: Fawad Alam Category C: Abdullah Shafique, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali Category D: Abid Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood, Yasir Shah
WHITE-BALL CONTRACTS (11):
Category A: Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan Category B: Haris Rauf Category C: Mohammad Nawaz Category D: Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Zahid Mehmood
EMERGING CONTRACTS (7):
Ali Usman (Southern Punjab), Haseebullah (Balochistan), Kamran Ghulam (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Haris (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Huraira (Northern), Qasim Akram (Central Punjab), Salman Ali Agha (Southern Punjab).
