NEW DELHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has come below fireplace from followers following the omission of star opener Fakhar Zaman from the 2024-25 checklist of centrally contracted gamers.
Zaman, a key participant in Pakistan’s white-ball setup, was notably not noted regardless of often that includes in ODIs and T20Is for the nationwide staff.
The PCB launched its new central contract construction, dividing 25 gamers into 4 classes: A, B, C, and D. Among the many high-profile modifications, former captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan retained their top-tier contracts, whereas Shaheen Afridi was demoted to Class B.
Nonetheless, the absence of Zaman has sparked outrage throughout social media, with many calling the choice “unfair”.
Cricket followers and consultants had been fast to react to Zaman’s omission, with one fan writing on X (previously Twitter), “Fakhar Zaman not within the central contract should be a typing error. It may well’t be true.”
One other fan criticized the PCB’s dealing with of the state of affairs, saying, “Punishing a participant simply because he has totally different opinions from you? Don’t neglect he has single-handedly received matches for us.”
Zaman’s omission is being linked to his current public criticism of the PCB’s resolution to drop Babar Azam from the Check squad for the remaining two matches towards England.
After the primary Check defeat, Zaman took to X to precise his frustration, evaluating Babar’s state of affairs to that of Virat Kohli, who was backed by India throughout a lean patch.
Following this submit, the PCB issued Zaman a show-cause discover, which insiders imagine performed a task in his exclusion from the contract checklist.
Whereas the PCB didn’t formally touch upon Zaman’s omission, the dearth of transparency has solely added to the backlash.
