Star Pak batter faces the warmth of PCB, gets dropped from Central contract due to this reason

Fakhar Zaman, a top-order batsman who recently spoke against the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for excluding Babar Azam from the Test squad, has been removed from the list of centrally contracted players for the period 2024-25. After Pakistan lost the first Test against England quite convincingly, the new selection committee of the PCB took some brave steps and decided to exclude Babar and other under-performing players from the team for the rest of the two Test matches. The PCB took the step that Fakhar challenged them with a long post on social media regarding the same issue.

Fakhar contended that Babar also had a similar run drought as Kohli, especially because Kohli grappled with a slump in runs from 2020 to late 2022. After comments in support of Babar were made, the decision to exclude Fakhar from the central contracted players prompted some fans to suggest that he was being punished.

As Pakistani media reported on Monday (January 3), PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi refuted the reports regarding Fakhar’s removal from the list of contracted players.

Naqvi verified that Fakhar Zaman has already been served with a showcause notice by the PCB which was issued on a certain matter, but even so, the reason for pulling him out of the list of players on central contracts is as a result of his not meeting fitness levels.

“Concerning his tweet, there is a problem, but it is irrelevant compared to the importance of his fitness Test. There is a showcase notice that is still pending on him. For this reason, we have omitted him from the central contracts list,” explained Mohsin Naqvi.

“‘It cannot happen like that when one player is not being picked by the selection committee and other players start tweeting their displeasure. Players cannot behave like that and that will never be permitted. The main issue with him is his fitness Test which he was not able to pass,” he said.

On Sunday, Mohammad Rizwan has been appointed the new ODI and T20 captain for Pakistan and will succeed Babar Azam. The announcement came ahead of the selectors’ announcement regarding the members of the white-ball tours to Australia and Zimbabwe scheduled for early November.

It was also announced that in each of the future ODI and T20 international assignments, Salman Ali Agha would be serving as the vice captain.

As part of the tour to Australia, Pakistan will play three One Day Internationals and three Twenty 20 Internationals, the first of which is an ODI set for Melbourne on November 4, and will mark Rizwan’s first outing in the capacity of captain.

Agha will stand in as the captain for the T20 in Zimbabwe because Rizwan is being rested due to a workload management plan, as confirmed in a statement by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).