LAHORE: Seventeen national women players were awarded six-month central contract by the Pakis­tan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday.

The contracts will be awarded with effect from from Jan 1 and will expire on June 30.

“The contracts for the first half of 2019 have been awarded following the settlement of all outstanding payments from the July-December 2018 contract period,” read a PCB press release issued on Monday.

“Fareeha Mehmood, Ghulam Fatima, Maham Tariq and Rameen Shamin have lost their contracts while Omaima Sohail is the only new face in the 17-player list. Sidra Amin and Aliya Riaz have been promoted from categories ‘D’ and ‘E’ to ‘C’ and ‘D’, respectively while Muneeba Ali Siddiqui has slipped from category ‘C’ to ‘D’.”

Fresh contracts have been awar­ded following an appraisal process, in which the player performances during the six-month contract period were taken into consideration by a four-member committee.

The committee comprised Haroon Rashid (PCB director cricket operations), Jalaluddin (selection committee chairman), Mark Coles (women’s team head coach) and Asmavia Iqbal (member of women’s selection committee).

In the second half of 2018, the Pakistan’s women cricketers featured in the ICC Women’s Championship, ICC Women’s World T20 in the West Indies and visited Bangladesh for ODI and T20 series.

Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof thanked the PCB for the central contracts.

“It is always a matter of pride to be handed a central contract. I am sure our players are happy and looking forward to doing their best in the coming months. Our aim being to build a fine team and bench-strength, these contracts certainly contribute to that purpose.”

In the ICC women’s ODI player rankings, Javeria Khan is the highest-ranked at 24th, followed by Nahida Khan (25th), Bismah Maroof (28th), Sana Mir (34th) and Nida Dar (69th).

Sana is the world’s highest-ranked bowler while Nashra Sandhu is the next highest-ranked bowler (37th). Nida is 45th, Bismah 59th, Anam Amin 69th and Aiman Anwer 80th.

In the ICC women’s T20 player rankings, Javeria (14th) is the highest-ranked Pakistani. She is followed by Bismah (18th), Sana (43rd), Nahida (47th) and Nain Abidi (64th)

Ninth-ranked Nida is the highest-ranked Pakistan bowler followed by Nashra Sandhu (10th), Anam (19th), Sana (25th) and Aiman (65th).

Nida is Pakistan’s highest-ranked T20 International all-rounder (16th).

Contracted players:

Category ‘A’: Bismah Maroof, Javeria Wadood, Nahida Khan, Sana Mir

Category ‘B’: Nashra Sundhu, Nida Rashid, Sidra Nawaz

Category ‘C’: Aliya Riaz, Anam Amin, Diana Baig, Omaima Sohail, Sidra Amin

Category ‘D’: Aimen Anwar, Ayesha Zafar, Kainat Imtiaz, Muneeba Ali Siddiqui, Natalia Pervaiz

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2019