LAHORE: Flamboyant Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman has failed to make it to the either of the national side’s squads for the upcoming ODI and T20 series against Australia on Zimbabwe, while also missing out on the central contract.

The PCB on Sunday announced it had awarded 12-month central contracts to 25 players for the 2024-25 international season, effective from July 1 this year.

The contracts have been offered under the structure that was agreed last year between the players and the PCB for a three-year period.

Fakhar, who has been a mainstay for Pakistan in white-ball cricket, has been fighting fitness issues lately and has also come under fire for posting in favour of team-mate Babar Azam on X hours before the latter was dropped from Pakistan’s squads for the second and third Tests of the recently-concluded series against England.

He was sent a notice by the PCB, asking him to explain his social media post.

While not openly clarifying why exactly Fakhar wasn’t handed a central contract, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi said the left-hander’s fitness concerns were bigger than the issue of him being critical towards the board’s decisions.

“There was definitely an issue regarding the tweet, but that matters less compared to his fitness test,” he said. “There were two main issues: one was the fitness test, and the other is a show-cause notice that is pending.

“A decision on that show-cause notice needs to be made, and after that, he must qualify for the fitness test.”

Fakhar had also criticised the PCB’s director international cricket Usman Wahla in the recently-held “Connection Camp” for causing several communication issues.

“I believe Fakhar spoke very well, and due to some of his inputs, we have fixed many things and are working on them in the international department, so I appreciate that,” said Mohsin. “However, it is not acceptable for a player to start tweeting if the selection committee decides not to select them. This is neither permitted nor will it be allowed.”

Meanwhile, the board said five players had been offered central contracts for the first time “as part of the PCB’s strategy to incentivise, encourage and reward talented and emerging cricketers”.

They are Khurram Shahzad, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Irfan Khan and Usman Khan. These players have been placed in Category ‘D’.

List of centrally contracted players:

Category ‘A’: Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan; Category ‘B’: Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood; Category ‘C’: Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Shadab Khan; Category ‘D’: Aamer Jamal, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Hurraira, Mohammad Irfan Khan, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Usman Khan.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2024