In this year’s PCB Central Contract list, eight players were dropped, including Aamer Jamal, Haseebullah, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Irfan Khan Niazi, Usman Khan, Mir Hamza, and Kamran Ghulam. Isn’t this a joke by those who drafted the central contracts?

Take right-handed batter Kamran Ghulam, for instance. He played a brilliant knock of 118 runs off 224 balls in his debut Test innings against England in Multan in October 2024. In his last five ODIs, he scored both a century and a half-century. Yet, he was removed like a fly from milk. What kind of message does that send?

Then there’s left-arm pacer Mir Hamza, who cut his 33rd birthday cake on September 10. He was part of the team setup over the past 12 months but was deemed fit to play just one Test. This bowler has taken 486 wickets in 125 first-class matches, bowling 22,365 deliveries for 10,854 runs. Who does he turn to when he has to cry over such treatment?

In the past, players have blackmailed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) under the influence of agents and PR campaigns, forcing decisions of their own choosing. However, under the chairmanship of Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi, a process has begun to push such elements into the background.

Placing trust in fresh faces in T20 cricket and not including any player in Category "A" of the central contract is not an embarrassment for the PCB; rather, it marks the beginning of a new phase where benefits are no longer handed out without performance.

Now the question arises: if the board had included Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in Category "A," wouldn’t that have been an injustice to the actual performers who have been dropped from the T20 team?

Still, there are quite a few questionable decisions in the central contract list. One of the biggest is the retention of all-rounder Shadab Khan in Category "B."

Shadab Khan, who has played 6 Tests, 70 ODIs, and 112 T20Is, last played a Test in 2020 and an ODI in 2023. Over the past 12 months, he has played just 8 T20Is, scoring 113 runs and taking 8 wickets, and is currently out of the team due to a shoulder injury. This raises serious questions about the merit and fairness of the selections.

In the 2025–2026 Central Contract list, 13 new players have been added. These include Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Haris, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Sahibzada Farhan, Mohammad Nawaz, Ahmed Daniyal, Khushdil Shah, Sufiyan Muqeem, Hussain Talat, Mohammad Abbas, and Salman Mirza.

However, serious questions are being raised about several of these selections, especially regarding the basis on which many of these players were included. And these questions don’t seem unjustified.

One notable case is that of 31-year-old Hasan Ali, who has represented Pakistan in 24 Tests, 68 ODIs, and 56 T20Is. How did he end up being placed in Category "B"? He hasn’t played any Tests or ODIs in recent times, and in the last 12 months, he featured in just three T20Is, taking 8 wickets. Granting him a Category "B" central contract under these circumstances – does that really fulfill the criteria of fairness and merit?

For the 2025–2026 central contract, the PCB has named 30 players across three categories. In contrast, the previous contract had 25 players in four categories. As always, after reviewing this year’s central contract, it’s hard to conclude anything other than that it was drawn up in haste. Neither was justice done to the players, nor do those who formulated the contract appear willing or able to defend their decisions.

Take Shan Masood, captain of Pakistan’s Test team, who will turn 36 on October 14 this year. Over the past year, he scored 602 runs in 9 Tests, including a knock of 151 against England in Multan and 145 against South Africa in Cape Town. And what was his reward? He was demoted from Category "B" to "D."

Similarly, Saud Shakeel, the vice-captain of the Test team, was Pakistan’s top Test run-scorer last season, scoring 1,658 runs in 19 Tests at an average of 50.24. In his past 9 Tests, he scored 691 runs with 2 centuries and 3 half-centuries. In addition, Saud played 4 ODIs over the last 12 months, including a top score of 62 against India in a high-pressure match in Dubai. Despite this, the contract committee did not see fit to place him above Category "C."

If this central contract was truly based on performance, then it seems the committee did no real homework in the bowling department. Otherwise, there was every reason to upgrade players like Nauman Ali, who took 36 wickets in 4 Tests, and Sajid Khan, who claimed 34 wickets in the same number of Tests. Yet, both were retained in Category "C" without any promotion.

If this is how the PCB’s think tank treats players who dedicate themselves to long-format Test cricket, how can Pakistan hope to progress in Tests?

Yes, it’s true that left-arm spinner Nauman Ali will turn 39 on October 7, but his stats – 83 wickets in 19 Tests, conceding 2,055 runs from 4,096 balls – are strong. Could his category not have been improved?

Similarly, off-spinner Sajid Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who has taken 59 wickets in 12 Tests, conceding 1,610 runs from 2,823 deliveries, was also clearly deserving of a higher category.

These decisions raise valid concerns over merit and fairness, especially regarding Test specialists, who seem to have been overlooked.

This is not the first time that the PCB has released a central contract list and faced criticism and accusations of injustice. It would be appropriate for the board to acknowledge and correct its mistakes and shortcomings. The PCB should take the criticism positively by revising the central contract list where necessary, and above all, start treating matters related to Pakistan’s Test cricket with the seriousness they deserve.