Ex-Captain Mohammad Rizwan refuses to sign ‘category B’ central contract

LAHORE: Ex-Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan has declined to sign the central contract made by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The PCB has provided a central contract to 30 players. Mohammad Rizwan is one of the top players who have been relegated from category A to category B.

He has also not been picked for the T20I series against touring South Africa. He has also been taken away from the ODI team captaincy.

As per the media reports, only one player, the wicketkeeper-batter, has not signed the central contract. As per the reports, the second-highest run scorer in the T20Is after Babar Azam has not signed a contract because the PCB did not accept his personal requests.

According to the sources, the PCB is currently not willing to listen to the complaints of Mohammad Rizwan.

In 2024, Mohammad Rizwan took over from star batsman Babar Azam as white-ball captain. Under his captaincy, Green shirts triumphed in away ODI series against South Africa and Australia. Two consecutive defeats in the shortest format led the PCB to make Salman Ali Agha the T20I captain.

Under his leadership in the ODI format, Pakistan did not qualify for the knockout phase of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

Subsequently, Pakistan was whitewashed by New Zealand and lost the West Indies series 2-1. For this reason, the PCB made Shaheen Shah Afridi the Pakistan captain in the ODI format.