PCB exclude Afridi, Naseem, Zaman in new central contracts

Lahore: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the new central contracts of the players for the international cricket season 2024-25.

The contract has been awarded to 25 players and for the first time in history five emerging cricketers – Khurram Shahzad, Abbas Afridi, Muhammad Ali, Irfan Khan, and Usman Khan – have been added in the central contract.

The PCB announced the new central contract on social media website X, formerly Twitter, that Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan have been retained in A category while Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah relegated to the B category.

The B category of skipper Shan Masood and C category of Noman Ali will be depending upon the captaincy and fitness of the two, respectively.

According to the PCB, former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed and opener Fakhar Zaman have been dropped.

Abdullah Shafique, Shadab Khan, Ibrar Ahmed, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, and Saud Shakeel have been added to C category while Amir Jamal, Muhammad Waseem Junior, Muhammad Huraira, Meer Hamza, Khurram Shahzad, Muhammad Ali, Irfan Khan Niazi, Haseebullah Khan, Abbas Afridi and Kamran Ghulam have been added to D category.