PCB Drops Central Contracts Bomb. Shaheen Afridi Demoted, Babar Azam In…

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday demoted premier pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi to Category B from Category A, and didn’t provide central contracts to senior gamers Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed and Osama Mir for the 2024-25 season. Test skipper Shan Masood remained in Category B regardless of Pakistan scoring a come-from-behind 2-1 collection victory over England not too long ago.

The board awarded the central contracts to a complete of 25 gamers simply two wanting the 27 who got contracts final 12 months.

Like final 12 months, the PCB made the contracts announcement after a delay of practically three months because the gamers performances, health ranges and behavior have been analysed.

As a part of the PCB’s technique to incentivise, encourage and reward proficient and rising cricketers, 5 gamers have been provided central contracts for the primary time.

They are: Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Irfan Khan and Usman Khan.

They have been positioned in Category D.

The board has awarded A class contracts to only two gamers – former captain Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan, who will quickly be introduced as Pakistan’s white ball codecs captain.

List of centrally contracted gamers: 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.

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