Banned former captains Mohammad Yousuf, Younus Khan and Shoaib Malik, as well as maverick pacer Shoaib Akhtar, were dropped from the list of players awarded central contracts by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
The PCB, however, gave central contracts to Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal, who were fined after a probe into Pakistan's disastrous tour of Australia in January-February.
Afridi and Kamran were handed A-grade contracts while Umar Akmal got a C.
Yousuf and Younus were banned indefinitely while Malik for 12 months. They were all also fined two million rupees on the recommendations of an inquiry committee that probed the poor performance of the team in New Zealand and Australia, and reports of infighting.
The board had fined Afridi and Kamran Akmal three million rupees each and put them on six months' probation, while Umar was fined two million rupees.
The PCB, in a change of policy, awarded central contracts to just 18 players and stipends to 19 others in the new listings.
Akhtar's exclusion was expected, since he hasn't played for Pakistan since May 2009 and also underwent knee surgery besides having other disciplinary issues with the board.
Also dropped from the new list of contracted players was all-rounder Sohail Tanvir, who is ruled out of action for four months after undergoing knee surgery in Australia recently.
The board, which said it finalised the list of contracted players and stipends after consulting chief selector Mohsin Khan, did not increase monthly salaries of the contracted players.
The A-grade centrally contracted players include Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Danish Kaneria, Salman Butt, Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Asif.
The B category has Umar Akmal, Muhammad Aamir, Saeed Ajmal, Faisal Iqbal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Imran Farhat while the C category players include Fawad Alam, Yasir Arafat, Muhammad Hafeez, Wahab Riaz and Abdul Rehman.
The players who will get stipends include top performers in domestic cricket and members of the national under-19 squad: Asad Shafiq Stipend Junaid Khan, Aamir Sajjad, Naveed Yasin, Azhar Ali, Khalid Latif, Khurrum Manzoor, Tanveer Ahmed, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Zulqarnain Haider, Umair Khan, Muhammad Talha, Shahzaib Hasan, Azeem Ghuman, Hammad Azam, Babar Azam, Raza Hasan, Sarmad Bhatti, Usman Qadir.
