Karachi, Mar.19 (ANI): Rubbing salt into the wounds of banned senior players, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has omitted the names of former captains Mohammed Yousuf, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik and all rounder Rana Naved-ul-Hasan from the list of players given a central contract, while offering the same to Shahid Afridi and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal.

Afridi, and the Akmal brothers (Umar and Kamran) have been included in the list of 37 cricketers who will be offered the year-long contracts despite being slapped with hefty fines for ‘misconduct’ during the winless tour Down Under.

The contracts will be valid from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010, a statement issued by the PCB said.

While players like Afridi, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria and Kamran Akmal have been named in the ‘A’ category, veteran batsman Misbah-ul-Haq, opener Imran Farhat and middle order batsman Umar Akmal have been bracketed in the ‘B’ category.

Surprisingly, young pacer Mohammad Aamer has also been given a ‘B’ category contract despite performing well through out last year.

In addition to the three categories, the board has introduced a special ’stipend’ category, which has been offered to top domestic and under-19 cricketers, The Dawn reports.

Players offered different central contracts are:

Category ‘A’: Umar Gul, Salman Butt, Danish Kaneria, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Asif, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal

Category ‘B’: Umar Akmal, Mohammad Aamir, Saeed Ajmal, Faisal Iqbal, Misbahul Haq, Imran Farhat

Category ‘C’: Fawad Alam, Yasir Arafat, Mohammad Hafeez, Wahab Riaz, Abdul Rehman. (ANI)