New Delhi: Opener Fakhar Zaman must be fit and must maintain disciplinary policies after he wasn’t handed a central contracts list, says Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi.
The PCB released its central list of contracted cricketers after excluding Zaman while naming Mohammad Rizwan as the team’s new white-ball captain in place of Babar Azam, who had resigned for the second time from the demanding job.
Zaman has supported Azam after he was dropped from Pakistan’s team for the second Test match against England.
The left handed better wrote on social media said the dropping Azam sent a wrong message to the players, comparing the way he has been treated by Pakistan and the manner in which India back Virat Kohli.
Asked the reason behind exclusion of Zaman from the central contracts list, Naqvi said that apart from his social media outburst on selection matters that wasn’t received kindly by the PCB.
But Naqvi added that apart from it, his fitness remains a concern that he needs to address to be considered for the contract.
“Tweet was one issue, but the bigger matter was that of fitness. There is a show-cause notice pending against him, and we will see about that. He would need to prove his fitness, his point of view was valued in the Connection Camp and I am very thankful to him for that but you cannot go around commenting on the selection committee over selection calls. But ya, the bigger issue is of selection,” the PCB chairman said in a media interaction on Sunday.
Zaman was earlier in Category B on the contracts list in the previous season. After his tweet, the PCB had issued a show cause notice to him following which he was removed from the contracts list for the first time in eight years.
The aggressive batter was in the team for the 2024 T20 World Cup 2024 where Pakistan were exited in the first round after going down to co-hosts USA and India.
List of centrally contracted players for Pakistan men’s team
Category A: Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan
Category B: Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood
Category C: Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel and Shadab Khan
Category D: 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
