In the latest central contract update by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), former captain and left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi was downgraded from Category A to Category B.
PCB’s announcement on Sunday also noted that several prominent players, including batter Fakhar Zaman, did not make the 12-month contract list.
The contract restructuring now leaves Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan as the sole Category A players. Notably absent from any contract category are former players such as Sarfaraz Ahmed and Hasan Ali, as well as others like Imam-ul-Haq and Iftikhar Ahmed.
This overhaul reflects PCB’s new policy of annual contracts based on performance, which was instituted last July. This policy also requires players to undergo quarterly fitness assessments and participate in domestic cricket.
The changes follow Pakistan’s underwhelming performance at the 2024 T20 World Cup, where the team failed to advance past the early stages.
Shaheen’s downgrade follows his and Babar’s rest during the last two Tests against England in a recent series after they participated in the initial match, which Pakistan lost.
For the first time, new faces such as Khurram Shahzad and Mohammad Abbas Afridi appear on the central contracts list, reflecting PCB’s shift towards integrating emerging talent.
Among those previously contracted, Fakhar and others reportedly failed initial fitness tests, with re-assessments pending that could affect their inclusion.
The revised pay structure awards Category A players Rs 4.5 million monthly, Category B players Rs 3 million, while those in Categories C and D receive between Rs750,000 and Rs1.5 million.
The newly contracted players are divided as follows:
- Category A: Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan
- Category B: Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood
- Category C: Includes Abdullah Shafique, Haris Rauf, and others totalling nine.
- Category D: Comprises eleven players, including Aamir Jamal and Kamran Ghulam.
