Sports News: PCB Contract Dispute

LAHORE: Pakistan Veteran Mohammad Hafeez who was demoted to Category B is all set to snub the new contract over news of his dismay and belief of being treated unfairly.  

According to the latest sports news, the new list which was announced by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has Former Pakistan Captain Hafeez demoted to the B category instead of the A category, he was previously in. According to sources close to the cricketer, Hafeez has expressed his displeasure and reservations over the new contract. The 37 year old did not feature in any match in the recently concluded Zimbabwe tour despite being part of the squad. 

The Pakistan Cricket Board announced the new list of central contracts for 2018-2019 on Monday. A total of 33 players across 5 categories have been named in the list. Pakistan Cricket Team Captain Sarfaraz, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Amir, Yasir Shah and Baber Azam were named in Category A. Ahmed Shehzad who is currently serving a ban for testing positive for a banned substance was omitted from the list completely. The board also announced a 30 per cent increase in the monthly remuneration for each of its categories and raised its players’ match fees by 20 per cent across all categories. 

The most notable absentee from Category A has been Hafeez. The former captain has represented the green shirts in in 83 T20Is, 200 ODIs and 50 Tests so far. According to the latest sports news of Pakistan, it is being rumoured that Hafeez might be considering retirement from the sport.

The list was announced before the Annual Pakistan Cricket awards were held in Karachi.  The players were presented with awards and honours in the presence of former cricketers, singers and other celebrities from the Pakistan industry. String also performed at the function, as the players' belongings were auctioned with the amount to be used for charity. The highlight of the auction was Fakhar Zaman purchasing Captain Sarfraz Ahmed's bat.

The main accolades went to M. Abbas who won test player of the year, Hassan Ali who won the best ODI player of the year, Babar Azam won T20i player of the year and Captain Sarfraz Ahmed was given the Imtiaz Ahmed Spirit of Cricket Award. PCB chairman Najam Sethi also addressed the function saying that very soon Karachi will host more international events following the success of the PSL final which was held in Karachi as well as the T20i against West Indies.