The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced Women’s Central Contracts 2024-25, which saw a couple of shocking exclusions from the list of contracted players for the upcoming season.
To the surprise of many, the veteran 37-year-old all-rounder and former skipper Nida Dar and the 32-year-old all-rounder Aliya Riaz didn’t find a place in the central contracts.
“Extremely disappointed but not surprised at all. The decisions are being taken by people with limited knowledge of the women’s game,” reacted former Pakistan skipper Sana Mir, dejected to see the experienced duo being ignored and schooled the decision makers for their lack of women’s cricket knowledge.
How can Nida Dar and Aliya Riaz not find a place in the contracts when a 50 Over qualifier is coming up in feb and potential 50 over World Cup in Oct next year?
Extremely disappointed but not surprised at all. The decisions are being taken by people with limited knowledge of… pic.twitter.com/6VNCsal76R
— Sana Mir ثناء میر (@mir_sana05) November 16, 2024
The talented 37-year-old all-rounder Nida Dar was sacked from T20I captaincy just before the 9th edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, hosted by Bangladesh and played in the United Arab Emirates. All-rounder Fatima Sana replaced her as the new skipper of the T20I set-up.
Nida Dar is the leading wicket-taker for Pakistan and overall, the 2nd highest wicket-taker in T20Is with 144 wickets at a strike rate of 21.2 and an impressive economy of 5.70 in 152 innings for her side so far. Her tally of wickets includes one four-wicket haul and one five-wicket haul.
Apart from her exploits with the ball, she has also scored 2091 runs at a strike rate of 101.35 in 141 innings. Her tally of runs includes 7 half-centuries in the format for her side, having made her debut in the format on 6th May 2010 against Sri Lanka. She made her ODI debut on 6th October 2010 against Sri Lanka. She has scored 1690 runs at a strike rate of 63.36 in 96 innings with the bat. Her tally of runs includes 11 half-centuries. Apart from her contributions with the ball, she has also picked up 108 wickets at an average of 30.45 and an impressive economy of 4.17 in 110 innings.
Aliya Riaz made her international debut on 23rd August 2014 in an ODI against Australia. She has scored 1324 runs at an average of 24.51 in 61 innings with the bat for her side. Her tally of runs in the format includes 7 half-centuries. Apart from her contributions with the bat, she has also picked up 12 wickets at an economy of 5.44 in 39 innings with the ball for her side so far.
She made her T20I debut on 30th August 2014 against Australia. She has scored 1142 runs at a decent average of 20.39 in 84 innings with the bat for her side. Her tally of runs includes a couple of half-centuries in the format. Apart from her contributions with the bat, she has also picked up 20 wickets at an economy of 7.94 in 32 innings with the ball for her side.
The central contracts were divided into four categories, Category A featuring skipper Fatima Sana, wicket-keeper batter Muneeba Ali, and Sidra Amin, Category B included Nashra Sundhu and Sadia Iqbal, while Category C features Diana Baig, and Omaima Sohail, and the likes of Ghulam Fatima, Gull Feroza, Rameen Shamim, Tasmia Rubab, Sadaf Shamas, Tuba Hassan, Najiha Alvi, Syeda Aroob Shah, and Umm-e-Hani are a part of Category D.
Loves all things female cricket
