Suspended Pakistan spinner Ajmal retains Grade A contract

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has been retained by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in its Grade A contract list, even though the 37-year-old is under suspension for illegal bowling since September last year.

Ajmal, who is set to appear for a reassessment test in Chennai Jan 24, was retained in the category along with Test and One-Day International (ODI) captain Misbah-ul Haq, Younus Khan, Mohammed Hafeez, Shahid Afridi and Junaid Khan.

"PCB has extended central contracts up to March 31, 2015 while the central contracts awarded for the year 2015 will be given in April. The term of the previous contracts, now extended, had expired December 31, 2014," a PCB spokesman was quoted as saying by Pakistan newspaper The Nation Thursday.

Also added to the list were pacer Sohail Khan and leg-spinner Yasir Shah in the D grade who have also been selected in the 15-member squad for the upcoming World Cup starting Feb 14.

The list of 33 players with extended central contracts:

Grade A (six): Misbah-ul Haq, Younus Khan, M Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Junaid Khan.

Grade B (three): Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul.

Grade C (six): Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Adnan Akmal, Khurram Manzoor, Nasir Jamshed, Abdur Rehman.

Grade D (18): Sohaib Maqsood, Sarfraz Ahmed, Bilawal Bhatti, Sharjeel Khan, Zulfiqar Babar, Fawad Alam, Ehsan Adil, M Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Raza Hasan, Umar Amin, Haris Sohail, Rahat Ali, Shan Masood, M Talha, Anwar Ali, Yasir Shah and Sohail Khan.