Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the men’s central contracts for 2022-23 that will be in effect on Friday.

The Cricket Board has introduced separate white and red-ball agreements.

In all, 33 of the players been given contracts for the next twelve months.

Pakistan’s captain in all formats Babar Azam, along with Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi have all been given white and red-ball contract.

Of the 10 players who received red-ball contracts Azhar Ali has been elevated to category A, Abdullah Shafique, Naseem Shah are into Category C, for the very first time together with Saud Shakeel who has been given Category D.

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Fawad Alam as well as Nauman Ali are kept in Categories B and C respectively, while Abid Ali Sarfaraz Ahmed Shan Masood and Yasir Shah were given the Category D contract.

Eleven limited-over specialists have been given white-ball contracts.

Fakhar Zaman, and Shadab Khan, who were both in Category B from 2021-22, were awarded Category A contracts. Haris Rauf was promoted into the Category B. Mohammad Nawaz has been kept in Category C.

Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir are elevated to Emerging to category D, where they will be joined by newcomers Asif Ali Haider Ali Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Wasim Jr. as well as Zahid Mehmood.

The players in the Emerging category include: Ali Usman, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Huraira, Qasim Akram and Salman Ali Agha.

At a press conference held in Rawalpindi today the Chief Selector Muhammad Wasim said some of the most important aspects in the central contract include 10 percent more match fees for all formats as well as an the increase in match fees for non-playing players from 50 percent to 70 % of the match fee overall.

The captaincy allowance was created to compensate the captain of the team for the extra responsibilities he takes on.