PCB will deduct salaries of the players who fail to meet the fitness requirements.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday (January 3) announced that all the centrally contracted players will undergo fitness tests at the National Cricket Academy on 6 and 7 January.
The board also said that Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir, and Shadab Khan will also attend the fitness test later this month as they are currently playing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
The two-day testing will be conducted under the guidance of Pakistan’s strength and conditioning coach Yasir Malik with the test covering the five major areas including – fat analysis, strength, endurance, speed endurance and cross-fit and will carry equal weightage.
PCB said in a media release on Friday: “All the available centrally contracted players will attend the two-day testing, which is aligned to their contracts. Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir and Shadab Khan, who will be occupied with their commitments in the Bangladesh Premier League, will undergo the tests on 20 and 21 January.”
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The board also said that Pakistan’s centrally contracted players will be fined 15 percent of their monthly salary if they fail to pass the fitness test at NCA.
It further reads, “Any player failing to meet the minimum fitness requirements will be fined 15 percent of his monthly retainer, which will remain effective until such time he achieves the minimum fitness standards. A player failing consecutive tests will risk the chances of retaining his central contract category and may face demotion.”
Meanwhile, the PCB Director Cricket - International, Zakir Khan, said: “There has always been an emphasis on the monitoring of players' fitness levels. This time we have decided to enforce penalties, which is in accordance with the contracts, as part of our objective to make the players more accountable and responsible for maintaining high fitness standards throughout the year.”
The PCB Director also revealed that domestic players will also have to undergo the tests. He signed off by saying, “These fitness tests will not be limited to the centrally contracted players, but will trickle down to the six Cricket Association teams.
Their tests will be conducted by their respective coaches and trainers as per their own schedules and players failing to pass fitness tests will jeopardize their chances of featuring in the Pakistan Cup One-Day Tournament to be held from March 25 to April 19.”
Here’s the list of PCB’s centrally contracted players:
Category A: Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah
Category B: Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Abbas, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi
Category C: Abid Ali, Hasan Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Shan Masood, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz.
(With PTI Inputs)