The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced their central contracts for the 2024-25 season. Under the leadership of Shan Masood, Pakistan recently defeated England 2-1 in a home Test series. This comes after months of controversies and humiliations that Pakistan endured. As things are with the PCB, though all doesn’t seem well, but they have taken few calls that are a massive setback to their star players Shaheen Afridi and Fakhar Zaman.

PCB Announces 2024-25 Central Contracts

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently took a massive call of dropping their stalwarts Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi from their Test squad that was taking on England in their home series. After a humiliating defeat in the first Test of the ENG vs PAK series, the PCB dropped Babar and Shaheen and this reaped huge rewards for them.

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Babar being dropped from the Test side, did not sit very well with Fakhar Zaman, who openly criticized the Pakistan Cricket Board in a social media post. The PCB later issued a show cause notice for Zaman and as a result, he has been axed from the list of centrally contracted players. Fakhar was a Category B player for Pakistan in their 2023-24 central contracts. Notably, Shaheen Afridi has also been moved to Category B from Category A as compared to last year.

The PCB’s Press Release Reads:

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has awarded 12-month central contracts to 25 men’s cricketers for the 2024-25 international season, effective from 1 July 2024. The contracts have been offered under the structure that was agreed last year between the players and the PCB for a three-year period.

As part of the PCB’s strategy to incentivise, encourage and reward talented and emerging cricketers, five players have been offered central contracts for the first time. They are Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Irfan Khan and Usman Khan. These players have been placed in Category D.

List of centrally contracted players:

Category A: Babar Azam and Mohammad RizwanCategory B: Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan MasoodCategory C: Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel and Shadab KhanCategory D: Aamir Jamal, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Hurraira, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr and Usman Khan

List of centrally-contracted Pakistan players in 2023-24

Category A: Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah AfridiCategory B: Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah and Shadab KhanCategory C: Imad Wasim and Abdullah ShafiqueCategory D: Fahim Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Ihsanullah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmad, Saud Shakeel, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shan Masood, Usama Mir and Zaman Khan

Pakistan Defeat England 2-0

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Spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan suppressed England’s batting attack inside three days and earned Pakistan a long-awaited and series-clinching nine-wicket win in the third and final Test. The 38-year-old left-arm spinner Ali and off-spinner Khan, 31, had grabbed all 20 wickets on a recycled second Test pitch to level the series last week and yet again clipped the batters on an engineered dry surface by sharing 19 wickets as England was dismissed for 112 on Day 3.

It was England’s lowest innings total in Pakistan, eclipsing its previous score of 130 all out in Lahore in 1987. Pakistan, which got a meaningful 77-run first innings lead, reached 37-1 at the stroke of lunch to notch its first home series win since 2021 when it beat South Africa 2-0.

(With PTI Inputs)