Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, and Mohammad Rizwan earn top dollars on PCB's 2022-23 central contract list

Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, and Mohammad Rizwan earn top dollars on PCB's 2022-23 central contract list

As expected, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced their annual central contract list for separate white-and-red-ball cricket on Thursday.

National captain Babar Azam, vice-captain Mohammad Rizwan, and speedster Shaheen Afridi have managed to earn top dollars after being handed deals in both - Tests and limited-overs - categories.

Former skipper Azhar Ali finds himself back in the A category after he was demoted to B last year. All-rounder Hasan Ali, who is undergoing a lean patch off-late, has been demoted to the C category in ODIs and T20Is while getting an upgrade into B grade in Tests.

The world's second-ranked ODI batter, Imam-ul-Haq, has been moved to B category in white-ball formats but remains in C for the red-ball contract, despite having a good showing against Australia at home.

All-rounder Shabad Khan and hard-hitting batter Fakhar Zaman have earned an A contract in white-ball cricket.

Notable omission and inclusion in the contract list

Losing out from last year are Faheem Ashraf and Mohammad Hasnain, whose papers were not renewed.

Other gainers include Shan Masood, Naseem Shah and Haider Ali, who were left out last year but find themselves in the mix for the 2022-23 season.

The PCB has increased the player pool from 20 to 33 this year, which sees as many as seven players included in the emerging category.

Talking about the contracts, chief selector Mohammad Wasim said, "I want to congratulate all those who have earned central contracts for the 2022-23 season, especially our younger players... for the first time as part of our vision and strategy to identify, groom, and develop specialists for the traditional and purest format of the game."

"I understand there will be a few disappointed players who have missed out on contracts, but I want to reiterate that we are not limiting and restricting ourselves to these 33 players. As and when required, players from outside the list will be included.

We have also expanded our category of emerging cricketers from three to seven as it is very important for us to groom those cricketers who have the potential to make it to the top level and give an incentive to those players who have excelled in our domestic tournaments," he further added.



Red-and-white-ball contracts:

Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi (all Category A), Hasan Ali (red-ball Category B, white-ball Category C) and Imam-ul-Haq (red-ball Category C, white-ball Category B)

Test contracts:

A – Azhar Ali

B – Fawad Alam

C – Abdullah Shafique, Naseem Shah and Nauman Ali

D – Abid Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood and Yasir Shah

ODI & T20I contracts:

A – Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan

B – Haris Rauf

C – Mohammad Nawaz

D – Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir and Zahid Mehmood

Emerging contracts:

Ali Usman (Southern Punjab), Haseebullah (Balochistan), Kamran Ghulam (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Haris (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Huraira (Northern), Qasim Akram (Central Punjab) and Salman Ali Agha (Southern Punjab).