PCB warns centrally contracted players following Naseem Shah’s reprimand

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has reportedly issued a strict warning to all its centrally contracted players concerning their social media conduct.

The board has instructed players to get approval before posting anything on their social media accounts and has forbidden players from posting political content. The guidelines have also been conveyed to the players’ social media managers. Any player found posting controversial content could face a fine of no less than PKR 10 million.

Naseem Shah incident

The move comes after fast bowler Naseem Shah was fined for his comments on Punjab’s Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

Pictures of her from the opening ceremony posted by PCB’s official X (formerly Twitter) account were commented on by Naseem, saying, "Why is she treated like the Queen at Lord's?"

The post stayed up for around 10 minutes before it was deleted. Later, another tweet from Naseem’s account claimed that his account was hacked and subsequently recovered.

Fined PKR 20 million

The fast bowler was sent a notice for violating his central contract terms. After the notice, Naseem was handed a PKR 20 million fine, the largest in Pakistan cricket history, as the board found him breaching several clauses of his contract.

He was penalized despite his unconditional apology and firing his social media adviser, who has also been blacklisted by the board from associating with any player under its jurisdiction.

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