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The fast bowler admitted it had been a tough week following his biosecure protocol breach

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jul-2020Jofra Archer has revealed he has received racist abuse on social media during his spell in isolation following the biosecurity breach ahead of the second Test against West Indies at Old Trafford as he opened up on how difficult the last week has been for him.Archer broke protocol when he opted to drive back to his flat in Hove last Tuesday instead of heading straight from the Ageas Bowl to Old Trafford under the strict guidelines laid down for this series. He was forced to miss the second Test then was handed a fine and written warning by the ECB.In his column he talked about the impact of social media and the “fickle” nature of how a sportsman can be a hero one minute and heavily criticised the next. He said he understood that was the nature of playing international sport, but revealed he had discussed some of the abuse he has received with the ECB.ALSO READ: Silverwood vows to pick ‘strongest attack’ for West Indies decider“Some of the abuse I have taken over the past few days on Instagram has been racist and I have decided that enough is enough,” Archer said. “Since Wilfried Zaha, the Crystal Palace footballer, was abused by a 12-year-old online I drew a line and I will not allow anything to pass, so I have forwarded on my complaints to the ECB and that will go through the correct process.”No one is going to be amazing all the time. Sometimes I feel it’s not a fair world – really and truly. Over the last few days, I have unfollowed and muted a lot of social media profiles to get away from it. I won’t be going back on it. I find it unnecessary noise. Take two wickets and everyone is back on the bandwagon again. It’s a fickle, fickle world we live in.”Archer twice tested negative for Covid-19 during his five days in isolation and is eligible for selection for the final Test starting on Friday, but said he struggled to bowl in the nets when he was given dispensation to leave his room at the on-site hotel.”I found I was struggling for motivation in the circumstances when it came to returning to bowling in the nets. When I walked outside of my room for the first time since being placed into self-isolation for breaking the Covid-19 protocols, I heard the cameras clicking with every single step I took,” he said. “The whole spectacle made me feel uneasy. I know what I did was an error of judgement and I have suffered the consequences of that. I haven’t committed a crime and I want to start feeling myself again.”I spoke briefly to the doctor about how I’m feeling and also to Ben Stokes on Monday night. Ben tried to advise me on how to deal with being in the spotlight of international sport. He vowed to back me and support me. Now, I need to be 100 percent mentally right so that I can throw myself into my cricket this week.”

Atlanta league administrator Venu Pisike won re-election in the other place up for grabs, securing a three-year term as an individual director on the board

Peter Della Penna16-Feb-2020Former USA batsman Srinivas Salver has replaced former national team fast bowler Usman Shuja as male player representative in the lone change in the USA Cricket board after results of the recent election were announced on Saturday night. Atlanta league administrator Venu Pisike won re-election in the other place up for grabs, securing a three-year term as an individual director on the board.Shuja’s loss is a stunning reversal from 2018 when he ran unopposed to win a unanimous vote for an initial one-year term. On this occasion, Salver, 35, won the vote by almost a 3 to 1 margin, claiming 34 votes from current or former players compared to Shuja’s tally of 12. Nine players abstained from voting after having registered. Another 43 players who would have been eligible to vote in the election simply refused to renew their USA Cricket membership in order to be eligible to vote.According to multiple sources, Salver was the preferred candidate among the majority of the current USA squad. Having last represented USA in 2018, Salver has built and maintained strong relationships with most of the current and recent players who have represented USA. Shuja, 41, played his last match for USA in 2014 and could not maintain enough support beyond the previous generation of players.Shuja had been the head of the influential cricket committee when the USA Cricket board was formed in 2018. But in the middle of 2019, he was replaced in that role by Atul Rai. It was around this time that Pubudu Dassanayake resigned as USA head coach and was replaced initially by Kiran More, with strong backing from Rai, before More’s assistant coach James Pamment took over from More in an interim capacity.Pisike’s re-election was expected thanks to a sizeable portion of the registered membership hailing from his Atlanta power-base. Of the 725 registered voters, 203 were tied to either the Atlanta Cricket League or the Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference. That support went a long way to him claiming a total of 369 votes compared to just 31 votes to Texas candidate Ather Naqi. A total of 325 eligible voters abstained from voting.The voting numbers are a drastic drop-off from the inaugural USA Cricket board elections in August 2018. Approximately 5500 members were eligible to vote for the previous election, but USA Cricket experienced an 87% drop in membership renewals ahead of this election. In 2018, USA Cricket had asked for a $35 annual membership fee before ultimately deciding to wave the fee ahead of the registration deadline to be able to vote in 2018.USA Cricket then lowered the fee to $10 for renewal by July 31, 2019. After extending the renewal deadline until the end of August, the governing body still could not convince members to join or renew in the same numbers as 2018 and instead experienced an 87% drop in membership.The USA board is expected to hold an annual general meeting in New York on February 21. There was no AGM held in 2019 after board elections were delayed six months, from August all the way until February 2020.

Scottish board currently without a chair amid criticism of its response to racism report

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Apr-2023Cricket Scotland has announced the appointment of Pete Fitzboyden as interim chief executive. Fitzboyden joins on a six-month contract and replaces Gordon Arthur with immediate effect, after Arthur announced his intention to step down earlier this year.Fitzboyden is a former chief executive of London Sport, and has served in similar interim roles at Badminton England and Cycling UK. His most recent role was as a consultant working on governance standards for the Rugby Football Union.His arrival comes at a time of upheaval at Cricket Scotland, which was last year placed into special measures after a damning report into racism. The board is currently without a chair, following Anjan Luthra’s resignation after just six months in the role, and there has been criticism on both sides over plans to increase diversity in the Scottish game.”I am delighted to be joining Cricket Scotland during this important time for the sport,” Fitzboyden said.”There remains a great deal of work to be done to build on the progress to date and deliver on our commitments to anti-racism and EDI within the sport, whilst continuing to rebuild trust within the Scottish cricketing community. I am also keen to support the ongoing enhancement of Cricket Scotland as an organisation, to ensure it flourishes for years to come.”We are about to begin an exciting domestic cricket season, while our men’s and women’s national squads have crucial World Cup qualifying campaigns on the horizon. It promises to be an extremely busy summer, and I am really looking forward to getting out and about around the country to meet people from all communities who share my love of cricket.”Cricket Scotland has also brought in Kash Taank as its head of EDI, and Declan Ritchie as conduct in sport manager. The governing body said it is close to appointing a head of “Changing the Boundaries”, in a specialised role named after the racism report published in 2022.The process of hiring a permanent chief executive will begin during the summer, with a view to filling the role by December 1, 2023.

Ireland international signs as Bears’ second overseas player for majority of group stages

Matt Roller22-Mar-2022Warwickshire hope that Paul Stirling will be a “transformational signing” for their T20 Blast ambitions, as he joins the club for the majority of the group stage to form a new-look opening partnership with Alex Davies.The Bears were beaten in the quarter-finals by eventual champions Kent last season, but lacked a reliable source of runs at the top of the order. Ed Pollock, explosive on his day but frustratingly inconsistent, has since left for Worcestershire while Adam Hose looks set to slide back into the middle order after a quiet 2021 at the top.Stirling, a sought-after opening batter in T20 leagues around the world, has spent the vast majority of his county career at Middlesex, though also played for Northamptonshire in 2020 after Ireland’s rise to full-member status forced him to register as an overseas player, rather than a local.”I’m incredibly excited to join up with the Bears for this year’s Vitality Blast,” Stirling said. “They were the masters of the red-ball game last year but also have big ambitions in white-ball cricket and want to be playing at home on Finals Day. It’s going to be a special few weeks and I can’t wait to get started.”Related

• Wright steps down as Sussex T20 captain

• Sams joins Essex for Blast

• Surrey sign Narine for Blast campaign

• Alex Davies banned and fined over historic offensive tweets

• Brathwaite to return to Bears as T20 Blast captain

He is due to play the first 12 group games before joining up with Ireland for their two T20 internationals against India at the end of June, and Warwickshire are hopeful he could be available for Finals Day on July 16 – the day after an Ireland ODI against New Zealand in Dublin – if they Bears reach that stage.Paul Farbrace, Warwickshire’s director of cricket, said that Stirling would open alongside Davies, his team-mate at Southern Brave during their title win in the Hundred last year. That would leave Hose, Chris Benjamin, Sam Hain, Will Rhodes and new captain Carlos Brathwaite in the Bears’ middle order, with recent England Under-19 internationals Dan Mousely and Jacob Bethell in reserve.”Paul could be a transformational signing for us in this year’s Blast,” Farbrace said. “He is one of the most powerful openers in the T20 game and has lots of experience on the biggest stage, having played in World Cups and global franchise tournaments.”With a new look opening pair of Paul and Alex Davies in this year’s Blast, it’s an incredibly exciting line-up that Carlos Brathwaite is going to be captaining when we take to the field at Edgbaston for our opening game against the Steelbacks on May 26.”Stirling was player of the match in the Hundred final last season, but is not expected to be picked up in this year’s competition due to a clash with Ireland’s series against South Africa and Afghanistan.

Sri Lanka went down by an innings and 222 runs, their worst-ever defeat at home

Andrew Fidel Fernando27-Jul-2023Noman Ali claimed seven wickets with guileful, accurate left-arm spin, then Naseem Shah’s sublime reverse-swing spell in the Colombo heat closed out the match, as Pakistan completed about a domineering a victory on Sri Lankan soil as has been achieved in the last several years.Pakistan’s bowling was spellbinding, but the numbers of this victory themselves are epic. Pakistan won by an innings and 222 runs, which is Sri Lanka’s worst-ever defeat at home. They did it inside four days, despite more than a day’s play having effectively been lost to rain and bad light. Noman’s figures for the second innings were 7 for 70. And Naseem bowled an unbroken 7.4 over spell that was pure fire and reverse swing to shut the door on the opposition.It was Noman’s flight, dip, and changes of pace that made him an especial threat. Sri Lanka had started their second innings nicely, their openers making 69 together. But the moment Noman came into the attack he produced a spectacular delivery to dismiss Nishan Madushka for 33, and would then go on to scythe through the batting order. The ball to Madushka was bowled from around the wicket, drifted in, dipped, pitched on middle and leg, then leapt off the surface to beat the batter’s outside edge and clip off stump. That was in the last half hour before lunch.After the break, Noman was unstoppable. Dimuth Karunaratne was caught at short leg by Imam-ul-Haq – another sharp take at that position for Pakistan, who have been spectacular with their close catching all series. Kusal Mendis then attempted to hit Noman inside out and spooned a catch to cover instead, having failed to get to the pitch of the ball. Dinesh Chandimal was out cheaply gloving an attempted lap sweep, and even Dhananjaya de Silva – who had had a good series – fell cheaply, holing out to long on to complete Noman’s five-wicket haul.Angelo Mathews, who hit an unbeaten half century as the devastation unfolded at the other end, was himself struggling against Noman, particularly early in his innings. He struck some big boundaries, sure, but in between were nervy defensive strokes. He eventually gained confidence. But none of the Sri Lanka batters were comfortable against Noman, as he got plenty to bite off the surface, kept testing them on a length, and bowled few loose deliveries.When he took his sixth and seventh wickets – having Sadeera Samarawickrama caught at point after getting the ball to bounce more than expected, before having Ramesh Mendis stumped – there was still the chance he might take all ten wickets in an innings.But then Naseem was putting in a heroic spell at the other end. It is difficult to overstate just how much he was getting the old the ball to swing, particularly into the right-hander. He’d cover the ball as he ran in, to conceal the shiny side, and by extension, keep the batter unaware as to which direction it would move. And he was bowling serious pace – sometimes touching the mid 140kph range.In one over to Ramesh Mendis the 62nd of the innings – he struck the batter on the pads three times in successive balls. On the first occasion Pakistan reviewed a not-out decision which was upheld because the ball was swinging down leg. On the next two, Ramesh reviewed out decisions, and they both turned out to be missing leg as well. The ball was curving fast and late.Eventually, Naseem would get some reward. He bowled an especially long spell, partly, you suspect, because he did not want to give the ball up. He bowled Prabath Jayasuriya who left a ball that cannoned into his off stump (further proof of how far this ball was moving laterally), then made an eruption out of Asitha Fernando and Dilshan Madushanka’s stumps as well.Mathews’ half-century always looked like it was coming in a losing effort, so far behind were Sri Lanka. And although there has been rain around, Babar Azam’s decision to have Pakistan bat two further overs early in the day ostensibly to let Mohammad Rizwan complete an eighth Test half century, did not hinder them at all, so good were his bowlers, and so readily did Sri Lanka’s batting succumb.

Says he’s been batting the “same way in the nets”, and it’s all just coming off for him out in the middle at the moment

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Nov-2022Suryakumar Yadav is really happy with the way he’s batting at the moment. He said as much after slamming an unbeaten 111 off 51 in Mount Maunganui to lift India to 191 for 6 in the second T20I against New Zealand. He also explained why he held back, relatively speaking, till the 17th over of the innings – he was 57 off 35 at the end of the 16th, before ransacking 54 off his last 16 deliveries.”In T20 cricket, a hundred is always special,” Suryakumar told the broadcasters after India’s innings. “But it was also important for me to bat till the end, that’s what Hardik [Pandya, his partner in an 82-run stand for the fourth wicket] was telling me from the other end. Just try and play till the 18th-19th over, we need a score of 180-185, and really happy with the score on the board.

Watch India’s tour of New Zealand LIVE on Prime Video from Nov 18 to 30.

“I’m enjoying batting this way, I’ve been doing the same thing in the nets, all practice sessions and going out [to the middle], all these things happening, I’m very happy with that.”Later, at the post-match press conference, he explained how he gets into his zone. “You have to do all the processes and routines the same way when you’ve done well. So 99% I try to do the same things on match day the same way. For example, if I have to do a gym session or if I have to eat lunch at the perfect time or if I have to take a power nap for about 15-20 minutes. These are all small small things which I try to do on game days and when I come to the ground I feel good. That is my zone.”Also I spend a lot of time on off days with my wife. Speak to my parents a lot. The one thing that keeps me grounded is they don’t talk about the game and that keeps me in a good space and I am really happy to stay in that zone for a very long time.”Suryakumar is currently the No. 1 T20I batter in the world, having piled up 1151 runs in the format in 2022 – this innings included – at a strike rate of 188.37, including two hundreds, nine fifties and a stunning 67 sixes. Of those runs, 239 came in the just-concluded T20 World Cup, at a strike rate of 189.68 – he finished that tournament with the highest strike rate among the 144 batters who totalled 10 or more runs, and the third third-highest aggregate.On Sunday, he reflected on his journey. “I always think about the past. Whenever I am in my room or travel with my wife, we talk about how the situation was two or three years ago and how it is now and what has changed. We keep discussing about those times, too. Yes, there was a bit of frustration at that time but we always looked to take positives from those situations, [looked at] how I could become a better cricketer and level up. I tried different things like having good [healthy] food, having quality practice sessions, sleeping on time. I used to do that even before but it was not so in terms of quality. Having gone through all of it, I am enjoying the fruits of that now.”So he’s cracked T20 cricket. How about Tests? “It’s coming… it’s coming… that time is also coming,” Suryakumar said. “When we start playing, we start with red-ball [cricket]. For apne (our) Mumbai team, I have played decent amount of first class cricket. So I have a good idea of that format and I enjoy it too. Hopefully, I will also get a Test cap soon.”

Comprehensive six-wicket win cements top spot, but Hampshire match on Tuesday will decide fate

ECB Reporters Network20-Aug-2023Leicestershire Foxes wrapped up their Metro Bank One-Day Cup group fixtures with a six-wicket victory over Yorkshire Vikings at Grace Road – but they will have to wait until Tuesday to know whether seven wins from eight will be enough to take them directly to a home semi-final as Group A winners.Hampshire’s win over Surrey means they can still equal Leicestershire’s points tally by beating Kent in a home fixture on Tuesday, which would leave net run-rate to determine the final placings. Whoever finishes second will have to first win a home quarter-final next Friday to stay in the competition.Half-centuries by overseas stars Peter Handscomb and Wiaan Mulder enabled Leicestershire to chase down Yorkshire’s 184 all out with 46 balls remaining after Matt Salisbury (three for 28) and Chris Wright (three for 31) had been the Foxes’ stand-out bowlers.The Vikings risked a more humbling defeat until a ninth-wicket stand of 75 between Dom Bess (40) and Ben Coad (45) – career-best List A scores for both – rescued Yorkshire from 91 for eight, but the defeat combined with Lancashire’s win at Lord’s ends their chance of qualifying for the knock-out stages via a top-three finish.Wright had Yorkshire on the back foot from the start by reducing them to 24 for three in eight overs after Leicestershire had to rethink their bowling plans with two of their leading competition wicket-takers – Josh Hull and Tom Scriven – sidelined with a stomach bug.After the Foxes had won the toss, Wright had Harry Duke caught behind as he under-edged a ball outside off stump before Shan Masood and Will Luxton departed from consecutive balls, the left-handed Masood squared up a little and taken at slip, the right-handed Luxton comprehensively bowled by one that seemed to come back sharply.Until the Bess-Coad fightback, losing regular wickets stymied Yorkshire’s attempts to build momentum. Salisbury, first change at the Bennett End as Wright took a breather with figures of three for 12, struck with his third ball as Fin Bean played across one that thudded into the front pad.Bean and James Wharton built something of a platform, adding 36 in seven overs, but the Vikings stalled again after Bean’s dismissal, losing Wharton to a catch at deep midwicket followed by George Hill, who pushed at one from Salisbury to be caught behind.Salisbury picked up a third wicket when Ben Mike, facing his former team-mates, was leg before to a delivery that kept a touch low before Will Davis – on his first 50-over call-up of the season – had Matthew Revis caught at short midwicket.With no front-line spinner to call on with Rehan Ahmed, Callum Parkinson and Colin Ackermann all attached to Hundred franchises, skipper Lewis Hill stuck with his five seamers, but Bess and Coad looked comfortable until Bess, attempting to paddle-scoop Wiaan Mulder, shovelled the ball into the gloves of wicketkeeper Handscomb.Hill finally turned to Louis Kimber, a part-time spinner but one who had a four-for with his off-breaks in this competition last year. Kimber took only three overs to claim the last Yorkshire wicket, beating Coad’s expansive swing for Handscomb to execute a stumping.It had not looked like a pitch conducive to clean hitting, yet openers Rishi Patel and Sol Budinger perhaps understandably chose not to deviate from the aggressive approach that had brought between them 673 runs in the competition.It backfired this time as both were out inside the first 15 balls of the Foxes innings, Patel miscuing George Hill to mid-on before Budinger, aiming to smear Coad over midwicket, was caught by wicketkeeper Duke after the ball left his bat vertically.Handscomb and Hill adopted a more cautious policy but after a dozen overs of pushing the scoreboard along steadily at a required rate of just over 3.5 runs an over, Hill was given out leg before trying to work a ball from Coad.The scoring rate went up sharply when Handscomb was joined by Mulder, bringing two in-form batters to the crease. After Aussie Handscomb completed his fifth half-century in the competition so far, adding a pull for six off Mike to four boundaries, Leicestershire were 110 for three after 25 overs, needing 75 to win in the second half of the innings.Dom Bess broke their partnership when Handscomb went to turn him down the leg side and feathered a catch through to Duke but Mulder soon completed his fourth fifty in the competition off 73 balls with five fours before Kimber hoisted Jack Shutt’s off spin for six over midwicket and then hammered the winning boundary off Mike.

Test captain happy with Australia’s consistency and ruthlessness, but wants to keep trying to improve

Andrew McGlashan in Sydney06-Jan-2020Tim Paine admitted it was hard not to think about the mouth-watering prospect of the Test series against India later this year, after a dominant home season that saw them trample all over Pakistan and New Zealand with five vast victories.The 279-run victory at the SCG, wrapped up deep into the fourth day to mean none of the five matches needed a fifth day, capped a perfect Test summer for the home side and meant a full house of World Test Championship points to put them second behind runaway leaders India, who will arrive in November for four Tests.Before then, Australia’s Test side have a tricky assignment in Bangladesh for two Tests in June and a one-off match against Afghanistan early next summer, but facing off against India over four matches – two seasons after India’s famous win in Australia – is a massive target.ALSO READ: Stats – One win in 26 years, New Zealand’s woes in AustraliaWhile playing down any element of revenge for what happened last season, when Virat Kohli led a 2-1 success, Paine is looking forward to facing India will a full complement of first-choice batsmen and with the benefit of the experience the side has had over the last 12 months.”We are certainly a different side from what they played against last year and there’s more at stake with Test Championship points,” Paine said. “If we can continue our upward trend from the last 12 months, then you are looking at two of the best sides, so it will be an awesome series. They showed last year they have a pace battery that can be every bit as threatening as ours so it will be one to watch.”If we go to Bangladesh and play well and get some wins over there, then you come back to Australia to play India, which is quite a mouth-watering series for players and the fans. It’s hard not to be looking at that. We’ve got some people who’re employed in Cricket Australia who are already looking ahead at that series.”But for the main playing group, your goal is Bangladesh and you certainly can’t take it lightly. We went there before and won a Test and lost a Test. And all the reports from the guys who went there is that it’s a really, really challenging place to play particularly the time of the year we’re going to be there.”Paine had started this summer “expecting” to win all five Tests but said that the margins of victory did not reflect how hard his team were pushed. One of the most pleasing aspects for him was learning from the previous series against India and especially the Ashes in England, where they could not always hold their nerve at vital moments.”Think at times in England when the big moments came up we tried too hard and let the emotion of the game take over us executing our skills,” he said. “It’s about doing your role, and the teams that can do that win the big moments. There were periods of the Test series against India and England that we should have capitalised on, but through wanting it too much or putting too much pressure on ourselves we let opportunities slip.”So confidence, learning and having some experienced Test players back as certainly helped.”While the India challenge looms large, there will be some interesting selection decisions to be made for the tour of Bangladesh including how many of the quick bowlers they take, the extra spin options and the potential need for an allrounder. Paine, who will move into some commentary of the Big Bash before resuming the back-end of the Sheffield Shield season with Tasmania in February, wants his team to keep striving for improvement.”The moment we don’t think we can improve, we are going to be in trouble,” he said. “We certainly all as individual players can get better. If we can all do that, two, three, five per cent, then we’ve going to be a better cricket team again. We’ve got lots of upside as a team. In terms of what we can add to it, we’ve got a lot of options we’ve picked during the summer. We think we’ve got a lot of bases covered and a lot of flexibility. I think, at the moment, we’re in a really good place. But we’ve got a lot of improvement in it.”We’re becoming a more consistent team. We’ve probably been a little more ruthless. It’s a really good sign, after we let some opportunities slip in England. And we’ve got some real match-winners and great quality throughout our side. It’s an exciting team to be a part of.”

Hasan Ali, left out of last year’s list, rejoins it in the highest-earning Category A

Umar Farooq02-Jul-2021Senior players Mohammad Abbas, Asad Shafiq and Imad Wasim, and youngsters Haider Ali and Naseem Shah are among the players missing from the Pakistan men’s contracts list for 2021-22.Fast bowler Hasan Ali, who made a strong comeback to the national team recently, has undergone a swift change in status. After having been left out last year, he rejoins the contracts list in Category A alongside Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Faheem Ashraf (Category B), Mohammad Nawaz, Nauman Ali (both Category C), Usman Qadir, Imran Butt and Shahnawaz Dahani (all Emerging Category) have also earned new contracts this year, while Shan Masood, Usman Shinwari and Iftikhar Ahmed have lost theirs. Haris Sohail, who recently made a comeback to Pakistan’s white-ball teams, lost his conrtact as well.In February, Rizwan had earned a promotion from Category B to A, while Fawad Alam was inducted into Category C. Alam has now earned another promotion to Category B.Senior top-order batter Azhar Ali, meanwhile, has been demoted from Category A to Category B. He might consider himself unlucky given that he averages 50.76 in nine Tests since Pakistan’s tour of England last year.In all, 20 players have been contracted for 2021-22, down from 21 last year.Former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has managed to retain his contract, though he has dropped down from Category B to C. He was originally dropped from the Pakistan side in 2019, across all formats, but he has been travelling with the squad of late, due to the requirement of larger touring parties in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, deputising for Rizwan who is the first-choice wicketkeeper. Sarfaraz has played just one ODI and two T20Is since the start of 2020.Naseem Shah has endured a downturn in fortunes since breaking spectacularly into the Test team•Getty Images

Naseem, who is 18 years old, and Haider, who is 20, had been considered among Pakistan’s strongest future prospects before they were axed from the contracts list. Haider made two half-centuries in his first three T20I innings but has regressed since then, his current average in the format a modest 19.69 after 15 matches. More recently, he was suspended from the PSL final for breaching Covid-19 protocols.Naseem made a strong start to his international career too, becoming the youngest bowler to take a Test hat-trick and the youngest fast bowler to pick up a five-wicket haul in the format. He won an Emerging contract last year but his career has slumped of late, with fitness concerns and a subsequent loss of form. He was dropped for a large part of the year before being recalled to Pakistan’s squad for the Test series in the West Indies next month.”In the new list, we have seen eight new players emerge who have now gained central contracts,” Wasim Khan, the PCB CEO, said in a statement. “Due to the competitive nature of the central contract system nine players who had contracts in 2020-21 have sadly missed out on this occasion. The door remains firmly open for these players and they will continue to remain in the plans of the selectors.”Khan further added: “Emerging Category recognises and rewards the up and coming talent. We have seen the emergence of Haris Rauf and Mohammad Hasnain move from an Emerging Category to Category C, and the likes of Imran Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir breaking into the Emerging Category. The Emerging Category remains a platform for young players to break into the central contract system.”The annual contract cycle runs from July 1 to June 30. The PCB has also increased the monthly retainer fee for all three categories by 25%. Players in B and C categories have received an additional raise in their match fees across all three formats. Players in Category B will get a 15% increase in Test match fees, 20% increase in ODI fees, and a 25% increase in T20I fees, while Category C players are getting a 34% increase in Test match fees, 50% increase in ODI fees, 67 per cent increase in T20I fees.This effectively means all players will receive the same match fees regardless of their contract category.”The equalisation of match fees means that all players who walk out together to represent Pakistan will receive the same match fees irrespective of which category they are in, or whether they have a central contract or not,” Khan said. “Despite the challenging economic climate, we as the Pakistan Cricket Board believe that it is important to continue to show advancement in the value of central contracts. In the last two years, we have seen significant progress in central contract payments and we will remain committed to the principle of improving the value of contracts year-on-year.”