No central contracts for Afridi and Akmal

Shahid Afridi, the former Pakistan captain, and Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, have not been awarded central contracts by the PCB.

Afridi retired "conditionally" from international cricket following his removal as captain post the tour of West Indies, while Kamran, who had received a Category A contract last year, was dropped from the national side for that tour and hasn't played since. Younis Khan, who had been banned for disciplinary reasons following a winless tour of Australia in 2009-10 didn't feature in the contracts list last year, has been awarded a Category A contract along with current captain Misbah-ul-Haq, allrounder Mohammad Hafeez, spinners Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman and seamer Umar Gul - the only player retained in the category from last year's list.

Umar Akmal and opener Imran Farhat were retained in Category B. Also included in that grade are Abdul Razzaq, demoted from grade A last year, middle-order batsmen Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali who have proved impressive finds for Pakistan in the last couple of years and left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz, whose exploits include a five-for against India in the World Cup semi-final.