During the tendering phase of a project, selecting the most appropriate main contractor to implement the project can be difficult. There are many main contractor selection criteria that can be found in the literature but in real practice, clients may have their different criteria. This paper investigates the criteria used by clients in selecting their main contactors in the Malaysian construction industry. Questionnaire survey was conducted in Peninsular Malaysia to obtain the data for the study. Descriptive analysis was performed to find the value such as mean and variance in order to compare both contractor selection criteria from literature and in real practice. It was found out that from current practice, track performance, financial capacity, bid price, technical capacity and experience in similar projects are the most important criteria that clients highly consider when selecting main contractors Peninsular Malaysia. The findings of this paper would help to offer a guidance to the wider Malaysian construction industry especially clients who ought to know the criteria that are being regarded the most important in current practice when it comes to contractor selection for construction projects.