Political Interference And Managerial Changes Causing Pakistan Cricket's Decline?

Pakistan cricket in turmoil [Source: @SalmanAsif2007/X.Com]

Pakistan cricket has certainly seen some bad years, but 2024 was surely at the top when it comes to dark days of Pakistan cricket team. There was a time when this team had leaders and always put the nation above everything else, but in recent years, things have taken a drastic ugly turn as the Asian side is seeing one of their worst slumps in international cricket.

One of the predominant reason for this massive downfall has been the constant political interference and it is impeding the progress on the field.

4 managerial changes which brought instability

When Ramiz Raja was appointed as the chairman in September 2021, Pakistan cricket took a flight and their fortunes turned for good. However, just 1 year and two months under his tenure, Raja was dismissed without proper explanation.

Najam Sethi, who had held the Chairmanship position before was reinstated and he lasted only 6 months as in June 2023, he was removed from the post and in came, Zaka Ashraf. He, too, lasted for 6 months before Naqvi became the Chairman.

Problem was that too many chopping and changing at the highest level led to instability in Pakistan cricket. Each Chairman had his own ideas, and by the time those ideas were implemented, the person in-charge was removed from his post.

4 captaincy changes which led to rift between seniors

Babar Azam was the all-format captain till the 2023 World Cup, and when Pakistan crashed out of the group stage, he left the white-ball captaincy and Shaheen Afridi was later appointed the T20I captain. However, prior to the T20 World Cup in 2024, Pakistan lost to New Zealand B team in a T20I series and Shaheen faced the wrath of PCB.

After only one series as the captain, he was axed from the position and Naqvi decided to bring back Babar as the leader of the team, a position which he left to concentrate on his batting. This created a rift between Babar and Shaheen and affected their game. A couple of months ago, Babar stepped down from the captaincy post and this time, PCB approached Mohammad Rizwan for the white-ball captaincy, which he reluctantly accepted.

2 head coaches changed within 6 months

A ray of hope was seen when Pakistan appointed Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie as their white ball and red ball coaches. However, this turned out to be a disaster in the making as both the acclaimed coaches had their issues with PCB.

Chairman Naqvi wanted the coaches to have "no say" in the squad selection and this infuriated Kirsten who left his position as the white-ball head coach. Gillespie, too, had his problems with the way PCB worked and right before the Test tour of South Africa, the former Aussie player decided to resign from the post, thus ensuring that Pakistan cricket once again went backwards.

Political interference harming Pakistan cricket

What are Mohsin Naqvi's credentials for becoming the PCB chairman?. Serving as Pakistan's interior minister, Naqvi was unanimously elected the PCB chairman in February 2024, and since then, their cricket has gone down massively.

He doesn't have extensive participation in cricket management, but because he had close relations with PCB's chief patron, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, Naqvi got the prized position within PCB.

Not saying having no knowledge and political background is a bad idea for chairmanship. Jay Shah, the former BCCI Secretary also had his political connections, but he was a man-manager and knew how to take Indian cricket forward, something which Naqvi failed to do.

Under his tenure, criticism rose as he reinstated Babar Azam as the white-ball captain and then suddenly removed him from the Test spot. Following Pakistan's exit from the T20 World Cup group stage, Naqvi called for a "major surgery", but nothing transpire as Pakistan cricket slumped even further.

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