Pakistan axe Malik, Hafeez contracts in clear-out

Veteran players Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez lost their central contracts on Thursday as Pakistan's cricket clear-out gathered pace.

Fast bowler Mohammad Amir was also demoted in the new contracts, announced a day after head coach Mickey Arthur was shown the door following a disappointing World Cup.

Malik, 37, had already quit one-day internationals after a poor World Cup in which he scored only eight runs in three matches with two ducks.

At 38, Hafeez also has little chance of regaining the chance to play for Pakistan, while Amir, who retired from Tests last month to focus on limited-overs cricket, is demoted from an A-category contract to a C.

"The annual central-contracts list for the 2019-2020 is trimmed from 33 to 19, reducing the number of categories from five to three," the Pakistan Cricket Board added in a release.

Skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, batsman Babar Azam and spinner Yasir Shah were retained in category A and will get 1.1 million rupees (6,870 US dollars) a month over the next year.

Senior batsman Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Abbas, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Wahab Riaz are in B category, which pays 750,000 rupees. The C contracts are worth 550,000 rupees a month.

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