Yasir impressed selectors after fine performances against Australia and New Zealand in Test matches in UAE last year. Subsequently, he found a place first in preliminary thirty-member World Cup squad then made it to the final fifteen-member team for the World Cup.
However, Pacer Sohail Khan was not even a part of preliminary list and dashed into the final squad following his brilliant performance in domestic cricket tournament Pentangular Cup.
“PCB has extended the contracts and has also put Sohail and Yasir in the contracted players list since they are a part of World Cup squad,” PCB spokesman told arysports.tv.
While including Sohail and Yasir into contracted players’ list, PCB has extended the central contracts up to March 31, 2015 of existing 31 contracted players in four categories of last year. The central contracts for 2015 will be awarded from April 1, 2015.
Yasir and Sohail have been awarded central contract in Category ‘D’ from January 1 to March 31, 2015. The term of the previous contracts expired on December 31, 2014.
As many as nine players of the fifteen-member final squad for the World Cup were contracted by PCB in its lowest Category ‘D’.
Interestingly, none of the of the six players, given comparably better contracts under the head Category ‘C’, is a part of World Cup squad.
The Central Contracts Committee – headed by Director Cricket Operations (International) Zakir Khan, Director Game Development Haroon Rasheed, Chairman National Selection Committee Moin Khan and Head Coach Pakistan National Team, Waqar Younis – met on December 7 to discuss various options. After due deliberations, it was decided to extend existing contracts till World Cup.
The list of 33 players extended central contracts:
Category ‘A’ (6 players): Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Junaid Khan.
Category ‘B’ (3 players): Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul.
Category ‘C’ (6 players): Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Adnan Akmal, Khurram Manzoor, Nasir Jamshed, Abdur Rehman
Category ‘D’ (18 players): Sohaib Maqsood, Sarfraz Ahmed, Bilawal Bhatti, Sharjeel Khan, Zulfiqar Babar, Fawad Alam, Ehsan Adil, Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Raza Hasan, Umar Amin, Haris Sohail, Rahat Ali, Shan Masood, Mohammad Talha, Anwar Ali, Yasir Shah and Sohail Khan.
