The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday announced central contracts for 30 male cricketers for the upcoming 2025\u201326 international season, with no players placed in the top-tier Category A.<\/p>\n
Last month, the number of male and female players in the central contract lists rose, according to PCB\u2019s 2025-26 budget documents.<\/p>\n
According to a press release by PCB today, the contracts, effective from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, \u201creflect the board\u2019s continued commitment to recognising and supporting national talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s roster sees ten players each placed in Categories B, C, and D, with the PCB acknowledging that \u201cno player has been selected for Category A in this cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pertinent to mention is that Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were the only two players in Category A for the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n
The duo have seen their stock fall over the past year; the former batting mainstays having been sidelined from the T20 squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompared to last year\u2019s list of 27 contracted players, the PCB has expanded the pool to 30, including 12 fresh additions, highlighting the emergence of promising new talent and the board\u2019s strategic focus on squad depth and future development,\u201d PCB said.<\/p>\n
The new entrants are: Ahmed Daniyal, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Mirza and Sufyan Moqim.<\/p>\n
Five players have been promoted owing to their last year\u2019s performances, PCB said. They are: Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha and Shadab Khan \u2014 all promoted from C to B category.<\/p>\n
Additionally, nine players have retained their positions in the same categories. They are: Abdullah Shafique (Category C), Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jnr \u2014 all in Category D, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Saud Shakeel \u2014 all in Category C and Shaheen Shah Afridi (Category B).<\/p>\n
PCB noted that eight players have missed out on contracts this year, namely Aamir Jamal, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Muhammad Irfan Khan and Usman Khan \u2014 all in Category (D).<\/p>\n
List of this year\u2019s centrally contacted players:<\/p>\n
Category B (10 players): Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan and Shaheen Shah Afridi<\/p>\n
Category C (10 players): Abdullah Shafique, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Sahibzada Farhan, Sajid Khan and Saud Shakeel<\/p>\n
Category D (10 players): Ahmed Daniyal, Hussain Talat, Khurram Shahzad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Salman Mirza, Shan Masood and Sufyan Moqim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday announced central contracts for 30 male cricketers for the upcoming 2025\u201326 international season, with no players placed in the top-tier Category A. Last month, the number of male and female players in the central contract lists rose, according to PCB\u2019s 2025-26 budget documents. According to a press release […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11507,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11505\/revisions\/11507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}