Shoaib Malik leans into a cover drive © Getty Images
Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez have been dropped from the PCB’s annual central-contracts list for the 2019-2020 season. The board has trimmed the pool from 33 to 19, reducing the number of categories from five to three. The board has, however, increased the value of the retainers in each category, with only three players – Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Yasir Shah – included in the top-most bracket.
The recent ODI retiree Malik and Hafeez were in categories A and B respectively last season. Mohammad Amir and Fakhar Zaman, who were in categories A and B respectively have both been demoted to category C.
Category A: Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Yasir Shah
Category B: Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Abbas, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Wahab Riaz
Category C: Abid Ali, Hasan Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Shan Masood and Usman Shinwari
Umar Farooq is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo