PCB to announce 2015 central contracts after Zimbabwe series

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to hold the announcement of the new central contracts until the end of the limited over series against Zimbabwe.
A senior official of the board told PTI that the contracts for 2015 would be announced after the series and that a few clauses needed to be finalized in the new contracts which have already been delayed by five months.
A well-informed source told PTI that the delay was due to the players resistance to the board's decision to remove the clause of win bonuses for the team for all three formats.
"Obviously the players are not happy with the removal of win bonuses for test, ODIs and T20 matches as this was a big incentive for the team to do well," the source said.

He said the PCB's point of view was that since it was again willing to give the contracted players a 10 to 20 percent increase in their central contract retainers and maybe even match fees it wanted to end the win bonuses.
"There is a feeling in the board that given the disappointing performances of the players since last year they need to first improve their results than claim to have a right to win bonuses as well," the source added.

He said there were also some disagreement between the players and board over clauses dealing with disciplinary issues.
After the 2014 central contracts expired in December last year, the PCB had offered three months short term contracts to players before the World Cup but the players decided against signing these contracts and said they want proper back dated annual contracts from January till December 2015.

The source said the new selection committee headed by Haroon Rasheed was given the task of finalizing the list of players for the central contracts and the board had decided against giving top category contracts to players who have restricted themselves to just one or two formats including Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan etc.
"The stress this time is on performance and fitness rather than seniority," he said.
The source said Pakistan's senior allrounder, Shoaib Malik may also get a central contract.