Former captain Nida Dar and Aliya Riaz have been omitted from the PCB’s new batch of central contracts introduced on Saturday. Sixteen gamers had been introduced within the new contracts, with Fatima Sana, who took over from Dar as captain, transferring as much as Class A.
Dar was in Class A in final yr’s contracts, whereas Riaz had been demoted to Class B, although their omissions aren’t completely surprising. In addition to dwindling kind, there are believed to have been considerations about their angle throughout the workforce set-up that had been mentioned with PCB hierarchy.
Eyman Fatima, Anoosha Nasir, Sidra Nawaz and Shawaal Zulfiqar additionally miss out on contracts this season, whereas Bismah Maroof’s retirement earlier this yr means she not options. The board stated, “these gamers will stay out there for choice, because the PCB shifts its focus in direction of growing the following era of cricketers in alignment with the ICC’s Girls’s FTP (Future Excursions Programme) for 2025-29.”
Twenty gamers had been awarded two-year contracts final yr, with a major pay bump, however with the proviso that performances can be reassessed after a yr.
Sana’s promotion is a reward for a sequence of excellent all-round performances within the run-up to, and on the T20 World Cup within the UAE. Pakistan beat Sri Lanka on the match however misplaced their three different group video games to India, Australia and eventual champions New Zealand.
Muneeba Ali, the wicketkeeper-batter, has additionally been promoted to Class A, becoming a member of Sidra Amin who retains her place. Gull Feroza and Rameen Shamim return to the central-contracts checklist for the primary time since 2018 and 2022-23 respectively, whereas Tasmia Rubab is included for the primary time.
The contracts have been pending approval for a while now, having run out on the finish of July. Gamers can be paid backdated quantities from then, nonetheless. The delay within the contracts is a part of a basic pattern of upheaval and uncertainty in Pakistan ladies’s cricket the place the PCB has struggled to get initiatives off the bottom. Most notable amongst them is the long-promised ladies’s PSL, which Ramiz Raja first promised as chairman almost three years in the past however is but to materialise. Tania Mallick, Head of Girls’s Cricket since October 2021, informed ESPNcricinfo earlier this yr she anticipated a ladies’s PSL to occur throughout the subsequent 12 months. Final month, nonetheless, she give up the position, with no indicators of that match within the close to future.
“The 2024-25 central contracts replicate our forward-looking technique as we put together for the brand new ICC Girls’s Future Excursions Programme,” the PCB’s new chief working officer Sumair Ahmad Syed stated. “By additional investing in established gamers by means of considerably enhanced retainers and providing clear pathways to the rising cricketer, we intention to strike a stability between nurturing future stars and sustaining competitiveness on the highest degree.”
Pakistan contracts checklist:
Class A: Fatima Sana, Muneeba Ali and Sidra Amin
Class B: Nashra Sundhu, Sadia Iqbal
Class C: Diana Baig, Omaima Sohail
Class D: Ghulam Fatima, Gull Feroza, Najiha Alvi, Rameen Shamim, Sadaf Shamas, Syeda Aroob Shah, Tasmia Rubab, Tuba Hassan, Umm-e-Hani
