By The Newspaper’s Sports Reporter
LAHORE: For the very first time, no Pakistan cricketer received ‘A’ category as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday offered central contracts to 30 players while the national team’s performance in international contests continued to decline.
In major reallocations made by the PCB, Test captain Shan Masood fell to ‘D’ category, the lowest of the central contracts while ODI skipper Mohammad Rizwan and former captain Babar Azam were demoted from category ‘A’ to ‘B’.
National T20 captain Salman Ali Agha, on the other hand, was promoted to category ‘B’ from ‘C’. Besides Rizwan and Babar, cricketers included in category ‘B’ are Abrar Ahmed, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
According to the PCB, five players got promotion in higher categories as 10 players were included in category ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’.
No player given category ‘A’
“The PCB has awarded central contracts to 30 male cricketers for the 2025-26 international season. The contract