PCB renew all central contracts including Shoaib Akhtar's

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The Pakistan Cricket Board has renewed the central contracts of all 17 national players for another year.

Pakistan’s top 17 cricketers were given a monthly salary of around $1,200 to $3500 under the first-ever national contracts introduced last year which expired after the team’s West Indies tour earlier this month. But contracts of all unfit players or those under scrutiny for illegal bowling actions would be reviewed after six months.

Shoaib Akhtar, who missed both West Indies and Indian tours due to fitness problems also got a renewed contract, ending speculation he could be dropped from the list of contracted players. Akhtar was the last player to sign the contract after he raised certain objections over personal sponsorship.

Inzamam-ul Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Abdul Razzaq, and Akhtar were offered A-category contracts and received a monthly salary of 200,000 rupees (around $3,500). Players in the B category got 125,000 rupees (around $2,100 dollars) while players in the C category received 75,000 rupees (around $1,200) a month.

The contracted players were judged by points scored on their performance in international matches. “The committee has also decided to add some more points, like five points will be given on scoring a century in a Test or one-day match,” said a spokesman. A bowler will get five points on getting five wickets in a Test or four wickets in a one-day match while a fielder will get the same number of points on taking four or more catches in a match, he added. “Achieving a world record in any form will give a player ten points while five points will be given on achieving national record in any form.”

The renewed contracts start from July 10. The Pakistan team now has a lay off until late October when they host England for three Tests and five one-day games.

SOURCE
http://content.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/story/210866.html

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Re: PCB renew all central contracts including Shoaib Akhtar’s

So what does this mean? Who are part of this group? I know Shabbir Ahmed will be here. Is Shoaib Akhter considered “unfit”? And what about Shoaib Malik… is his action completely in the clear now?

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Re: PCB renew all central contracts including Shoaib Akhtar’s

KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ad-hoc committee on Friday decided to continue with the present system of central contracts for the players for another year.

PCB Director Board Operations Abbas Zaidi said after the meeting that the committee had approved the issuance of fresh central contracts for another year from July 10.

“But there will be a six months review for the players who have been unfit or under scrutiny for illegal bowling actions,” he said hinting towards the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul and Shabbir Ahmed. The committee also decided that, apart from the existing bonus of 20% shared between all players for each win, an additional 10% would be paid for a series win.

And in a progressive step the committee also agreed that a special stipend should be given to the bench squad players who would be prepared through fitness training and coaching to step-up into the national team.

“The names of the players being given central contracts and those a special stipend would be announced shortly, after consultation with the selection committee,” Zaidi said.

It was also decided that the present points system method of categorisation had been successful and that additional points should be included to provide individual incentives for high performance. Accordingly, the following additional points would be given to players as follows:

(i) Century in ODI or Test match: 5 points. (ii) 5 wickets or more in any Test match innings 5 points. (iii) 4 wickets or more in ODI 5 points. (iv) 4 catches or more in ODI or in any innings of Test. 5 points. (v) Achieving national record in any form 5 points. (vi) Achieving world record in any form 10 points. The other decisions taken by the committee include: The ad-hoc committee also decided to have a befitting commemoration for Pakistan’s recently deceased cricketing icon Fazal Mahmood.

A committee headed by Imtiaz Ahmed was appointed to recommend appropriate proposals within a week for a memorial for Fazal Mahmood. The sd-hoc committee was also given a briefing on the recommendations of the Academies Committee headed by chief coach Haroon Rasheed.

After a thorough discussion, it was decided that a final paper would be prepared by Saleem Altaf (DCO) in one month’s time on the policy guidelines and staffing for the national and regional academies that would be approved by the ad-hoc committee.

Meanwhile, it was decided that work should begin on upgrading the facilities of the regional academies that needed to be brought up to basic standards.

The committee reviewed proposals for the fine-tuning of the regional cricketing set-up in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and gave its approval in principle to the proposals made at the meeting details of which are being finalised.

The committee was informed by Chairman Shaharyar Khan that Justice Bhandari’s final draft would be completed in the next few days and presented to the Patron immediately on receipt.

Pakistan team manager Saleem Altaf gave a briefing on the recently completed West Indies tour. The committee expressed its satisfaction at the success of the tour and congratulated the team and management on their achievements. The ad-hoc committee noted that PCB would begin preparations for the forthcoming England and India series based on a plan to be prepared on the return of national coach Bob Woolmer and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq. The committee agreed that immediate steps should be taken for the improvement of stadiums in readiness for the series against England and India. The improvements related to:

(a) Installation of floodlights, electronic scoreboards and video screens in Multan, Faisalabad and Peshawar stadiums. (b) Improvements to make the stadiums spectator friendly i.e ticket booths, drinking-water, shade, clean toilets, signage etc.

SOURCE
http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html](http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html)

I guess the players categories will be announced shortly as mentioned in this article. I guess I did read somewhere that some players will be upgraded to higher categories this time. So lets see