Top Pak players to earn Rs 2.4 m per annum through central contracts

Lahore, June 28 (UNI) Six top Pakistani cricketers including skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq will get 25 per cent pay hike while banned medium pacer Shabbir Ahmed has been left out from a new 12-month central contract system announced by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Inzamam and five other category 'A' players -- Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi -- will earn an annual income of Rs 2.4 million as 20 players find place in the new central contract which comes into effect from July 1, a PCB official said.

Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Malik, Danish Kaneria and Kamran Akmal have been placed in category 'B' with a pay of Rs 1.5 million a year.

The C-category players -- Asim Kamal, Imran Farhat, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Shahid Nazir, Salman Butt, Bazid Khan, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar Anjum and newcomers Mohammad Asif and Faisal Iqbal -- would earn Rs 900,000 per annum.

''The new contracts have been worked out by the PCB ad-hoc committee and all the players are happy on getting a raise,'' PCB Director of Board Operations Abbas Zaidi told 'The News'.

Meanwhile, medium pacer Shabbir Ahmed, who is serving one year ban from ICC for illegal bowling action, has been axed from the central contracts' list but would get a special allowance of Rs 30,000 per month from the PCB, according to Zaidi.

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