Lahore: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has added three more spots in the central contracts list for women cricketers for the 2021-22 season, the board announced on Monday.
The central contracts, which come into effect from July 1, include 12 spots, divided between A, B and C categories, while eight cricketers have been retained in the emerging contracts list.
Bismah Maroof, who is on indefinite maternity leave, has been retained in Category A. The only other player in the elite category is Javeria Khan.
Experienced all-rounder Nida Dar has been promoted to Category B; the two other players in the category being Aliya Riaz and Diana Baig.
There are eight players in Category C, which includes Fatima Sana Khan, who received the PCB's Women's Emerging Cricketer of the Year Award in 2020.
The PCB have also announced an open spot to reward one player for outstanding on-field performance during the year. In addition to this, monthly retainers across all rungs - including the emerging category - have been increased by 10 per cent.
"The last year has been an extremely challenging one owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, despite that, the PCB continued to significantly invest in the women’s game and organised international and domestic cricket for the women cricketers, with the tours of South Africa and Zimbabwe and a domestic T20 competition," said Urooj Mumtaz, the chair of the national women’s selection committee in a PCB statement.
"The board also invested in three high performance camps over the 2020-21 season, which also included one camp for 27 emerging players," she added.
Central contracts for women's cricketers for 2021-22 season:
Category A - Bismah Maroof, Javeria Khan
Category B - Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig, Nida Dar
Category C - Anam Amin, Fatima Sana, Kainat Imtiaz, Nahida Khan, Nashra Sandhu, Omaima Sohail, Sidra Nawaz
Emerging contracts for women's cricketers for 2021-22 season:
Ayesha Naseem, Kaynat Hafeez, Muneeba Ali Siddiqui, Najiha Alvi, Rameen Shamim, Saba Nazir, Sadia Iqbal and Syeda Aroob Shah
