PCB chief reveals reason behind Fakhar Zaman's central contract snub

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi has revealed the reasons behind opening batter Fakhar Zaman’s omission from the central contracts list.

Earlier today, PCB announced adding as many as 25 players to the central contract list, however, several senior players including Fakhar Zaman, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Imad Wasim and Iftikhar Ahmed were dropped.

While former captain Babar Azam and newly-appointed white ball captain Mohammad Rizwan retained their spots in the “A” category, Zaman was dropped from the list and the squads for the upcoming Australia and Zimbabwe tours.

During a press conference where he announced handing white ball captaincy to Rizwan, PCB Chief Mohsin Naqvi addressed Fakhar Zaman’s exclusion from the central contracts list.

“There is the tweet issue definitely. But that doesn’t matter as much as his fitness tests. He had two issues: the fitness test and the show-cause notice, which is still pending. That is why he hasn’t been included (in the central contracts list),” Naqvi said.

It is worth mentioning here that the left-handed batter has questioned the PCB’s decision to exclude Babar Azam from the squad for the last two Tests of the recently concluded England series.

In a post on X, Zaman had said that dropping Babar Azam would send a negative message to the team, as he emphasised the need to safeguard key players rather than undermine them.

The PCB chief in his press conference reiterated the importance of discipline within the team while acknowledging Fakhar Zaman’s input during the previous connection camp.

“Fakhar spoke well in the connection camp, and because of that, we’ve fixed a lot of things and are doing more in the international department. I appreciate him for that, but this can’t happen if a player gets dropped by the selection committee then another player starts doing tweets against it. This isn’t allowed and won’t be allowed. But the bigger issue is his fitness test,” Mohsin Naqvi said.