Sports: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the new annual men's central contracts list for the 2024-25 season on Sunday. The star cricketer Babar Azam was among only two players who have been retained in the top category A but there is no place for the likes of Noman Ali, Sajid Khan and Kamran Ghulam in the first two categories. 

Babar was dropped from the last two Test matches against England after a string of poor performances in red-ball cricket. Kamran Ghulam, Babar's replacement in the playing eleven, scored a sensational century to help Pakistan end their winless run at home but he found himself in the fourth category in the PCB's new central contracts. 

The spin duo of Noman Ali and Sajid Khan, who guided Pakistan to their first Test series win since 2021 at home, also misses out on the first two categories. Sajid claimed the Player of the Series award for taking 19 wickets and has been placed in Category C.

"The contracts have been offered under the structure that was agreed last year between the players and the PCB for a three-year period," the PCB statement said. "As part of the PCB’s strategy to incentivise, encourage and reward talented and emerging cricketers, five players have been offered central contracts for the first time. They are Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Irfan Khan and Usman Khan. These players have been placed in Category D."

Test captain Shan Masood was promoted from Category D to B after winning his first Test series as a skipper. The former captain Shaheen Afridi saw himself getting dropped to Category B after inconsistent performances across formats in 2024. 

PCB's List of centrally contracted players:

Category A (2): Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.

Category B (3): Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood.

Category C (9): Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel and Shadab Khan.

Category D (11): Aamir Jamal, Haseebullah, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Hurraira, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr and Usman Khan.