Data, Not Favouritism: PCB Overhauls Central Contracts With 85% Data-Driven Criteria
By Sayed Abdullah | June 15, 2026
The press conference had the feel of something that does not happen often enough in Pakistani cricket: a genuine structural reform, announced not as a promise but as a done deal. PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi stood before reporters alongside white-ball head coach Mike Hesson, national selector Aqib Javed, and a table full of senior board officials. What he unveiled was not a tweak to the existing system. It was a complete demolition of it. The selection committee, he said, will now control only 15 percent of central contract decisions. The other 85 percent will be determined by data. For a board that has spent decades being accused of favouritism, regional bias, and backroom deals, that single number is the most radical thing anyone has said in years.
The old categories — A, B, C, D — are gone. In their place are five format-specific tracks, each designed to reward players for what they actually do rather than what selectors think of them.
The Full Story
Naqvi was blunt about the motivation behind the overhaul. "There were cases where players at the domestic level were not receiving fair recognition," he said. "We hope this entire process will now be transparent, and there should be little room for objections regarding how contracts are awarded." The statement was an acknowledgment — rare for a PCB chairman — that the old system was broken. Domestic players, particularly those from smaller provinces or less glamorous teams, have long complained that contracts were awarded on reputation and connections rather than performance. Naqvi's 85-15 formula is designed to make that complaint obsolete. Data, he argued, cannot be lobbied. It cannot be pressured. It simply is.
The new framework is built around five tracks. Track AB is for premier multi-format players who represent Pakistan in both Test and ODI cricket — the elite core of the national setup. Track A is for red-ball specialists, who will receive additional incentives and permission to play overseas first-class competitions. That is a meaningful concession to Test cricketers, who have long felt financially disadvantaged compared to their white-ball counterparts. Track BC covers core white-ball players across ODIs and T20Is. Track C is for T20 specialists and franchise players, with greater flexibility around national commitments — a recognition that the modern cricketer's calendar is increasingly split between country and club. And Track D is a development category for emerging cricketers coming through the National Cricket Academy and domestic pathway. The PCB described the model as a first-of-its-kind structure in international cricket. Whether that claim holds up to scrutiny is less important than what the structure signals: that the board is thinking about players in terms of their format-specific value, not just their general reputation.
Medical fitness, Naqvi confirmed, remains a mandatory requirement. That is not a new rule, but its inclusion in the announcement suggests the board intends to enforce it more rigorously than it has in the past. Players who cannot prove they are fit to play will not receive contracts, regardless of their data scores. The message is clear: the era of carrying injured or unfit players on central contracts because of past glories is over. The numbers will decide. The fitness tests will verify. The selectors will have a small, discretionary window — 15 percent — to account for factors that data cannot capture. But the balance of power has shifted decisively toward objectivity.
Why This Moment Matters
Pakistani cricket has been having a difficult conversation with itself for years about selection, merit, and the role of influence in determining who wears the green shirt. The conversation has never really been resolved. Every new selection committee promises transparency. Every chairman promises reform. The cycle repeats, and the complaints — from domestic players, from fans, from commentators — never fully go away. Naqvi's announcement is different not because it promises change, but because it quantifies it. Eighty-five percent. Fifteen percent. Those are not aspirations. They are ratios. And they create a structure in which favouritism is mathematically constrained. A selector who wants to push a favourite player can only do so within the 15 percent discretionary window. The other 85 percent will be backed by statistics — averages, strike rates, fitness scores, domestic performance metrics. That is not a perfect system. Data can be gamed. Metrics can be chosen selectively. But it is a far harder system to manipulate than one in which selectors simply pick who they like.
The format-specific tracks are equally significant. Under the old category system, a Test specialist and a T20 specialist could end up in the same bracket, competing for the same contract value, despite playing fundamentally different roles for the national team. The new tracks eliminate that absurdity. A red-ball specialist in Track A is not competing with a T20 gun-for-hire in Track C. They are assessed, rewarded, and incentivised within their own lane. That is how professional sports work in countries that take them seriously. Pakistan is now, on paper at least, one of those countries.
The Pakistani Connection
I have spoken to enough domestic cricketers in Pakistan to know that the old system bred cynicism, yaar. A young fast bowler from a village in Punjab, or a spinner from the interior of Sindh, would spend years performing in first-class cricket, waiting for a contract that never came. Meanwhile, a player from a more connected background — someone whose uncle knew a selector, or whose regional association had political clout — would get fast-tracked into the system. The talent was there, but the access was not. Naqvi's announcement will not immediately heal those wounds. Cynicism earned over decades does not evaporate in a single press conference. But the 85-15 formula gives those domestic players something they have never had before: a framework in which their numbers can speak for them. If you score runs, if you take wickets, the data will reflect it. And 85 percent of the contract decision will flow from that data. That is not justice. But it is a step toward fairness. And in Pakistani cricket, fairness has been in short supply.
For fans, the new tracks also make sense. A Test specialist, grinding out five-day matches on flat pitches, is a different kind of athlete from a T20 finisher who faces twelve balls a game and is expected to clear the boundary. Rewarding them on the same scale was always a category error. The new system acknowledges that reality. It also signals to young players that there is a viable career path in red-ball cricket — that you do not have to become a T20 mercenary to earn a living from the sport. That is important, because Test cricket in Pakistan is struggling, and the talent pipeline for the longest format needs to be nurtured, not neglected. The additional incentive of overseas first-class cricket for Track A players is a carrot that could keep talented youngsters in the red-ball system rather than losing them to the franchise circuit. Whether it works depends on the implementation. But the intention is sound.
Do you think this data-driven approach will actually reduce favouritism in Pakistani cricket, or will the selectors find ways around it? Share your thoughts.
Sayed Abdullah is the founder and editor of Prime Pakistan. Based in Karachi, he writes about cricket and the stories that connect Pakistan to the world. Read more.
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Sources
- PCB press conference — Mohsin Naqvi's announcement of the new central contract system.
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