Afif Hossain made key contributions to help the Bangladesh U19 team attain the sixth position at the World Cup earlier this year.

With his stellar all-round performance, the youngster earned himself a spot in the senior national team and played a T20I against Sri Lanka in February. Although his international debut wasn’t a memorable one, Afif was certainly impressive in his first-class debut game last year, where he achieved a commendable feat by notching up a hundred.

The 18-year-old has now been included in a special category in the contract-list by the BCB. While the contract-list enrolls a total of 77 first-class cricketers, the distinct category comprises five players—Abdur Razzak, Tushar Imran, Abu Jayed, Mosaddek Hossain, and Afif Hossain.

Speaking to Cricfrenzy about being placed in the special category, he said: ‘I wasn’t surprised [at being awarded a special category contract]. I am, however, happy after hearing it. I had previously heard about me being in the special contract.’

The players in the special category will be getting more than double the wages compared to that of the rest of the cricketers on the list.

Razzak and Tushar are currently the most wicket-taker and the most run-getter, respectively, in Bangladesh’s first-class cricket. On the other hand, Afif is the youngest player in this category.