After publicly criticizing their national cricket board for resting Babar Azam halfway through the England Test series, Fakhar Zaman was taken off their Pakistan central contracts list. Notably, on Sunday, October 27, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) made public the list of players who have contracts for the 2024–25 season. A few veterans' names were missing from the list, even though a number of young players received their first contracts.
Fakhar Zaman, a member of Category B in the central contracts for the previous season, was one of them. Only a few weeks after publicly criticizing the choice to rest Babar Azam on his X handle, he was removed. The PCB officials were not happy with the position, so the board sent him a "show cause" notice.
Zaman has now lost his central contract for the first time in eight years as a result of the incident. The daring batter's last appearance for his nation was in the 2024 T20 World Cup, where Pakistan was eliminated in the opening round following humiliating defeats to co-hosts India and the United States. Meanwhile, a number of well-known players, including Iftikhar Ahmed, Hassan Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed, and Imam-ul-Haq, were absent from the updated list of centrally contracted players in addition to Fakhar.
Following Pakistan's historic 2-1 series victory over England under Ben Stokes, Test skipper Shan Masood was elevated from Category D to Category B. Shaheen Shah Afridi, a youthful fast bowler who was not included in the last two Test matches, has been downgraded to category B. The newcomers to the contract list, who fall under Category D, are Usman Khan, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Mohammad Ali, Khurram Shahzad, and Mohammad Abbas Afridi.
List of centrally contracted players for Pakistan men’s team
Category A (2): Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan
Category B (3): Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood
Category C (9): Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel and Shadab Khan
Category D (11): 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
