PCB to review players' central contracts after T20 World Cup 2024 debacle

LAHORE: Following the team's poor performance and elimination from the T20 World Cup 2024, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to reassess the central contracts of national players, sources told Geo News Saturday.

The sources revealed that matters related to the retention of players and their salaries will now be reviewed by PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi who had called for a "major surgery" after the poor show in the ongoing event.

"Senior officials of the cricket board were present in their offices late into the night, consulting on the team's poor performance and the central contracts," the sources said.

Players with poor performances are expected to be demoted with regards to their central contracts in the first phase. Meanwhile, several others are likely to lose their central contracts altogether, the sources added.

The development comes as the Green Shirts have been eliminated from the ongoing mega event and failed to even proceed to the Super Eight stage after losing their two initial matches against the new entrant United States and arch-rivals India.

With the match between the US and Ireland abandoned due to rain on Friday, the co-hosts secured one point, consequently ending Pakistan's hopes of proceeding in the tournament.

The national team's last league game against Ireland will only be a formality after which the squad will return home.

This is the third time in the tournament’s history that Pakistan is out in the league round.

Earlier, Geo News had reported that the board is likely to make significant changes in the team with players including Mohammad Amir, Imad Wasim, Iftikhar Ahmed, Azam Khan, and Usman Khan expected to face difficulties in maintaining their place in the national side's future.

The sources also said that a group of three players in the Pakistan team were blackmailing PCB officials at the behest of the players' manager, who represents all three of them and had pressurised the board to secure a significant remuneration increase in the players' central contracts.

It is to be noted that the players had pressurised former PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf to secure a three-year central contract last year, which came into effect from July 1, provisioning increased remunerations.

Since then, the Men in Green have appeared and failed in multiple international tournaments including the Asia Cup 2023, ODI World Cup 2023 and the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024.

Furthermore, the national side also failed in the tours of Australia and New Zealand.

However, the board will now decide on the prospects of keeping the current remuneration packages of the players.