LAHORE: The inexplicable and illogical decision of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to retain last year’s list of centrally contracted players for an extended period of three months — from Jan 1, 2015 to March 31 — has duly backfired since a number of senior players in the World Cup squad, currently touring New Zealand, have refused to sign the contracts.

It was on Jan 14 that the PCB had decided on the recommendations of its central contract committee headed by Zakir Khan (Director International Cricket) along with members Haroon Rasheed (Director Game Development), chief selector Moin Khan and head coach Waqar Younis, to extend the period of contracts for another three months after they had expired on Dec 31, 2014.

Only two new players, Yasir Shah and Sohail Khan, were added to the early list of 31 to raise the total number of players to 33. Both Sohail and Yasir were drafted in because of their selection in the World Cup squad.

While the PCB on Monday moved swiftly to quell the impending crisis ahead of the all-important World Cup campaign, it remains a fact that the row was triggered off due to the short-sightedness of the Board officials.

It may be mentioned that per the past practices, the PCB has been giving one-year contracts to players over their performances in the preceding year. However, the hasty decision taken by the Board this time has rubbed many players the wrong way since they feel that justice has not been done to them as they still remain lowly placed in ‘C’ and ‘D’ categories despite featuring in the World Cup squad.

On the other hand, many players who did not play much cricket in 2014 for various reasons, have been retained in top categories such as ‘A’ and ‘B’ which certainly does not make much sense.

According to reports filtering in from New Zealand, several players in the World Cup squad have raised serious objections to the decision and have demanded that proper one-year contracts be issued to them instead of three month extensions.

Secondly, the players want incentives for winning each match although a clause to that effect has now been abolished by the PCB. As things stand today, all incentives and win bonuses etc are to be only awarded to players subject to a series win instead of per match basis. However, the players argue that since the format of mega tournaments like World Cup, Asia Cup or the ICC Champions Trophy is such that every match counts towards an eventual title victory, the formula of giving win bonuses after a full series should not be applied on them.

PCB’s extension of last year’s contracts have turned the equation upside down for most players. For example, men like Saeed Ajmal and Junaid Khan continue to feature in the ‘A’ category despite the fact that they did not play many international matches in 2014, the former due to the ICC sanctions imposed on him over illegal bowling action, and the latter owing to recurring injuries.

Same is the case with Umar Akmal and Umar Gul who are still enjoying a place in the ‘B’ category while they have not featured in the national team for most of 2014.

Mohammad Hafeez, whose bowling action has also been declared illegal by the ICC, is also placed in the ‘A’ category although his performance as a batsman last year was nothing to write home about.

Besides them, a number of deserving players like dashing wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed, Fawad Alam, lanky pacer Mohammad Irfan and a few others are still sitting in the ‘C’ and ‘D’ categories although they have stood out in recent months with their show.

When contacted, a PCB spokesman said there was no serious issue of central contracts with the players and the PCB chairman was in touch with the team management in New Zealand and the matter will be amicably sorted out in the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, former PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf said no such controversies should have happened at this crucial time when the players needed to focus solely on the ICC World Cup. “Such decisions are proving the non-seriousness of the PCB and this row is a clear example of bad governance,” said Zaka.

“The players should have their peace of mind at this time when they have a huge challenge ahead in World Cup. Instead, they are being haggled by such illogical decision,” Zaka said. “It seems the PCB’s central contract committee did not give any importance to the players’ performances before taking this key decision.”

Published in Dawn January 27th, 2015

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