Sarfaraz Ahmed survived while Faheem Ashraf was left out of PCB’s central contract list yesterday. The new contracts will be effective from July 01, 2022 to June 30, 2023. Also worth mentioning here is the fact that for the first time, the board has announced separate red and white-ball contracts which includes a total of 33 players i.e. 13 more than the previous season.
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PCB’s Central Contract: Sarfaraz Ahmed Retained, Faheem Ashraf Omitted
Skipper Babar Azam, as well as Mohd. Rizwan, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq and Shaheen Shah Afridi were the only five cricketers who were able to successfully secure contracts for both red and white-ball cricket. Former captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed on the other hand managed to survive in the D category of the red ball contract list. All-rounder, Faheem Ashraf surprisingly was ignored completely. The complete list of players who have received central contracts from the PCB is as below.
Red And White Ball Contracts (5): Babar Azam, Mohd. 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)
Red Ball Contracts (10): Category A – Azhar Ali Category B – Fawad Alam Category C – Abdullah Shafique, Naseem Shah and Nauman Ali Category D – Abid Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood and Yasir Shah
White Ball Contracts (11): Category A – Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan Category B – Haris Rauf Category C – Mohd. Nawaz Category D – Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Khushdil Shah, Mohd. Wasim Jnr, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir and 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) and Salman Ali Agha (Southern Punjab)
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Mohd. Wasim Explains The Selection Process
While explaining the selection process chief selector, Mohd. Wasim said, “I want to congratulate all those who have earned central contracts for the 2022-23 season, especially our four younger players who have received red-ball contracts for the first time as part of our vision and strategy to identify, groom and develop specialists for the traditional and purist 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 potential to make it to the top level and give an incentive to those players who have excelled in our domestic tournaments.”