PCB Retains Bismah Maroof as Captain, Announce Enhanced Contracts for Women’s Team

Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday sacked national women’s team head coach Iqbal Imam but retained Bismah Maroof as captain for the 2020-21 season.

The board also announced enhanced central contracts for nine women cricketers and also a nine-player emerging category.

The board said it had made a 33 percent enhancement in the Category A contracts and given 30 and 25 percent raises in the B and C Categories as well.

It said that as part of promoting women’s cricket and incentivising aspiring cricketers, it had also enhanced match fee and prize money for domestic events by 100 percent, domestic daily allowance raised by 50 percent.

In a continuation to last year, the Pakistan national women’s team will travel business class on all flights longer than five hours.

The board’s newly introduced emerging players list includes 16-year-old Syeda Aroob Shah, 15-year-old Ayesha Naseem, 22-year-old Muneeba Ali Siddiqui, Fatima Sana, Kainat Hafeez, Najiha Alvi, Rameen Shamim, Saba Nazir and Sadia Iqbal.

The main central contracts list includes Bismah Maroof and Javeria Khan in category A, Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig and Sidra Nawaz in B category and Anam Amin, Nahida Khan, Nida Dar and Omaima Sohail in C category.

Chief selector Urooj Mumtaz said the international performances over the past 12 months, fitness standards and the players’ ability to contribute in both white-ball formats were key measures that formed the criteria for the selection.