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.
Bismah Maroof Disappointed Over ICC’s Decision
As reported earlier, Pakistan and India are the teams that have to share points as the sides failed to play a bilateral series against each other. Which made the Indian women’s cricket team to qualify for the ODI World Cup 2021 by virtue of being the top four.
Replying to that the 28 year old Bismah Maroof pointed out that after a review and understanding of the decision, the legal team may consider going to ICC if it seems necessary.
In a video conference Maroof was heard saying that the verdict was disappointing. She explained that the Pakistani group had been waiting a long time to play alongside India.
She reveals that the Pakistani Board was working on it but it failed to get any response from the Indian side. The video conference was arranged by PCB. It has to be noted that in light of numerous terrorist attacks and mischiefs on the border, the Indian government has thrown any idea of having a sporting relation with Pakistan off the table.
