Naqvi in favour of making players’ fitness tests public

The central contracts framework in Pakistan cricket has undergone a major overhaul. Not only will players be awarded format- and specialisation-specific central contracts, but they will also need to clear each of the three gates, as the PCB document calls them, to be considered for contracts.

Eligibility criteria ‘gates’

The gates include Medical & Fitness, Domestic Participation, and Performance Assessment. Players will be required to be fit, have ‘active participation’ in the domestic circuit, and meet format-specific performance criteria to be considered for contracts.

"We are making it mandatory for players to participate in domestic cricket. If anyone chooses not to play, there will be consequences," said PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi.

While the board did not disclose what active participation means, it is understood that the PCB has conveyed to the players the minimum number of domestic matches they will have to play. The figure is expected to be around five first-class and 10 List A matches.

Naqvi said he aims to keep the process transparent, which is why he is in favour of making the results public.

"We have included every detail in the document with great care and thoroughness. I am in favour of making fitness test results public and available to the media," he added.

Pakistan’s worrying form in tournaments

Naqvi also acknowledged that the team’s performance in multinational tournaments has not been on par with their bilateral series form, but he expects improvements to follow as the board tries to fix what is broken.

"Achieving good results is a collective responsibility. We are providing everything required for the betterment of cricket," Naqvi stated.

"Our results in bilateral series have been encouraging, but we have not performed well in tournaments. Work is being done to address that.

"There is much more to consider than just performance alone. We acknowledge that our results in tournaments have not been good enough, but improvement will now be visible."

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