LAHORE: The national cricketers’ central contracts are delayed due to the uncertainty surrounding the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) since last week.
The central contracts will be expired today and the new contracts have not yet been offered to the players.
As per the sources, the contracts could not be offered to the players due to the lack of a permanent chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
The day-to-day affairs of the PCB are being run by Acting Chairman and Election Commissioner Ahmed Farooq Shehzad Rana.
Sources said that after the appointment of the new chairman, several changes are anticipated within the PCB, including personnel and policy modifications.
It is likely that the structure of the central contracts will be altered, although a 25% increase in retainers is being considered.
The PCB is also discussing whether it should continue to award separate contracts based on white-ball and red-ball cricket.
Due to retirement, veteran batter Azhar Ali will be excluded from the centrally-contracted players list. Meanwhile, Fawad Alam, Yasir Shah, Nauman Ali, Khushdil Shah, Usman Qadir and Zahid Mehmood are also likely to lose their central contracts.
Earlier on Monday (June 26), the PCB postponed the elections for its new chairman after a stay order was issued by the Balochistan High Court's two-member bench.
Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Amir Nawaz issued an order to stop the elections till July 17.
The elections for the PCB chairman were supposed to be held on Tuesday (June 27) at the PCB headquarters in Lahore.
All of the involved participants including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination, the PCB Chairman nominee Zaka Ashraf and others were issued notices.
The petition was filed by the former member of the PCB management committee Gul Mohammad Kakar in a bid to challenge the elections for the chairman of PCB.
The petitioners urged the court to stop the elections of the chairman and suspend the Board of Governors (BoG) until it gives a verdict on their petitions.
It was also contended in the petition that the BoG was established against the nominations of the ex-management committee and the meeting between the BoG and the election of the cricket board's chairman would be illegal as well.
Sohail Imran Sohail Imran is a senior reporter for Geo News.