PCB's Mohsin Naqvi Makes Bizarre Central Contract Rules For Pakistan Players

Naqvi introduces bizarre centracl contract rules [Source: AFP]

Pakistan cricket has been in turmoil in recent years, and ever since reaching the T20 World Cup finals in 2022, their standards have fallen in international cricket. The Men in Green crashed out of the group stage in three back-to-back ICC tournaments, and couldn’t go past the Super 8 stage in the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Not only in white-ball cricket, but Pakistan has failed to deliver, even in Test cricket as they languish at the bottom of the WTC points table, and have been underwhelming under the leadership of Shan Masood.

As a result of all the failures, PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi took stern action against the Pakistan team and introduced the new Central Contract system, scrapping the older one.

Naqvi introduces new Central Contract to improve Pakistan cricket

PCB’s old contract system sorted players into A, B, C and D categories — grades that said only how much a player was paid, never what kind of cricketer they were.

Naqvi eliminated the old system and introduced a new one built around a format commitment rather than a pay rank.

The top-tier contract for a Pakistan player is Track AB (dual format). This is for those players who will play Test and ODI cricket for the national team, and it is in the highest commitment tier. Track A is for red-ball cricketers, whose primary job is to solely focus on Test cricket.

Then there is Track BC, and in this, the player mainly focuses on white-ball formats (ODIs and T20I games). The fourth tier is category C, and this is for the players who specialise in T20 and franchise cricket.

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Last, but not the least, Tier D contract is about developing new players for the future.

The bizarre rules involving PCB Central Contract revealed

According to reports by Pakistan Sports Journalist Sohail Imran, the new PCB contract clearly states that they will not announce whether a player is in track A, or any other track. It means the public cannot know whether a player is contracted as a Test specialist or falls in some other category.

The report also stated that a Test and ODI player, a white ball player, or a T20 specialist. The number of players contracted to these categories will also not be revealed.

Hence, the Pakistan fans wouldn't know which contract category Babar Azam, or a Shaheen Afridi fell under.

Why PCB took this drastic step?

Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB Chairman has one mission: To make Pakistan cricket better and raise the falling standards. Moreover, PCB wants its players to have a clarity of role, and they feel that not every player is suited for multiple formats.

Some are Test specialists, some are good in T20s, and hence, the new contract system will help the board identify the players that perfectly fit that particular format.

"Every cricket board in the world is grappling with the same question: how do you keep Test cricket strong in the age of the franchise game? At Pakistan, we have chosen to answer it with structure rather than words. I am proud that this framework puts us at the front of that thinking — and I believe it points to a direction the wider game will move toward in the years ahead," Mohsin Naqvi's statement.

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