KARACHI: Senior player Muhammad Hafeez who was demoted to Category B under the new central contract, is mulling not signing the contract, sources informed Geo News.

According to sources close to the cricketer, Hafeez has expressed strong reservations over the new contract which demoted him to the second tier category.

The 37-year-old, who did not feature in any of Pakistan’s five one-day internationals against Zimbabwe despite being part of a much-rotated squad, was featured in Category B alongside Faheem Ashraf, Asad Shafiq, Hasan Ali, Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan.

On Monday, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had announced new central contracts for the upcoming year 2018-19.

A total of 33 players across five categories were included in the central contract.

Skipper Sarfraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, Muhammad Amir, Yasir Shah and Babar Azam were included in Category A.

While Imad Wasim, Muhammad Abbas, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Muhammad Nawaz, Usman Khan Shinwari and Shan Masood were placed in Category C.

Ahmed Shehzad, who was provisionally suspended by the PCB last month for testing positive for a banned substance, failed to score a central contract.

The PCB also announced 25 to 30 per cent increase in the monthly remuneration for each of its categories and raised its players’ match fees by 20 per cent across all categories.