Mohsin Naqvi 'in favour' of publicising national cricketers' fitness-test results

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Monday expressed his desire to make the outcomes of national cricketers' fitness tests public, which, alongside participation in domestic cricket, has been made crucial in obtaining the central contracts.

Naqvi, while addressing the media, alongside PCB COO Sumair Ahmad and Director High-Performance Aqib Javed, confirmed that the cricket board was moving away from the traditional category-based grading system of A, B, C and D contracts and replacing it with a format-specific model built around five distinct player tracks.

As per the newly-introduced structure, Track AB will feature players capable of performing in both Test and ODI cricket, Track A has been reserved for red-ball specialists, while Track BC will be covering ODIs and T20 Internationals.

Furthermore, Track C has been introduced for T20 specialists and franchise-focused players, whereas Track D is a development pathway aligned with the National Cricket Academy system.

PCB Chairman Naqvi, however, while explaining the overhaul of the structure, reiterated that the national players' adequate fitness status and participation in domestic cricket will be mandatory to obtain the central contracts.

He then went on to voice support for greater transparency regarding players' physical condition, saying he was in favour of making the results of fitness assessments available to the public through the media.

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

"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.

The PCB chairman also acknowledged that the national men's cricket team's performances, particularly in multi-lateral tournaments, have been below-par, but emphasised that work is being done to address the issue and thus asserted that improvement will be visible soon.

"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."