PCB contracts: Shaheen Afridi demoted; Fakhar and Iftikhar omitted

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday demoted premier pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi to Category B from Category A, and did not offer central contracts to senior players Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed and Osama Mir for the 2024-25 season.

Test skipper Shan Masood remained in Category B despite Pakistan scoring a come-from-behind 2-1 series victory over England recently.

The board awarded the central contracts to a total of 25 players just two short of the 27 who were given contracts last year.

Like last year, the PCB made the contracts announcement after a delay of nearly three months as the players performances, fitness levels and behaviour were analysed.

As part of the PCB's strategy to incentivise, encourage and reward talented and emerging cricketers, five players have been offered central contracts for the first time.

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

They have been placed in Category D.

The board has awarded A category contracts to just two players former captain Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan, who will soon be announced as Pakistan's white ball formats captain.

List of centrally contracted players:  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.