Pakistan have officially been eliminated from the Champions Trophy. This, coupled with the loss to India, has opened up a whole can of worms. The beer googles have been removed to reveal a whole mess that has been in existence for a while now.
Former Pakistan skipper and legendary pacer, Wasim Akram, has called for the sacking of the top five Pakistan players following the team's Champions Trophy loss against India on 23 February in Dubai. Pakistan, who are the defending champions and hosts of the Champions Trophy, have been knocked out of the tournament post Bangladesh's loss against New Zealand on 24 February.
"Enough is enough. We are losing in white-ball with these players from some couple of years. The time is to take a bold step. What is the bold step?" Akram questioned after the loss against India during a TV appearance on a local channel.
"As Waqar Younis was saying, bring young players, fearless cricketers, bring them in white ball cricket. Even if you have to make 5-6 big changes, do that, lose for the next six months, support those players. Start making the 2026 T20 World Cup team from now," he added.
"PCB chairman has to call up the selection committee, call the captain, coach and our five legends and ask them what is this selection. Khushdil Shah and Salman Agha, did it look like they will get out someone, Virat Kohli types," Akram further said.
"We have been backing these players for the last few years but they are not learning nor improving," former captain Wasim Akram told AFP.
"It is time for a major shake-up. We need to improve our system of domestic cricket so that we can produce quality cricketers, not ordinary ones." A lack of competitiveness in domestic cricket and low-quality pitches have been blamed for not preparing players for the international stage.
The sport in Pakistan is also held back by frequent changes to the cricket board, coaching teams and selection panels, critics say. Such changes are driven by politics and not merit, according to observers.
"I feel very despondent with the state of Pakistan cricket," former captain, Rashid Latif, told AFP. "We have to follow merit and bring in professionals in the administration of the game and not people on a political basis."
"Frequent changes in the Pakistan Cricket Board, selection committee and captains have failed us in forming a proper set-up and team."
While talking about the top 5 players of the Pakistan team, Akram might be hinting at Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf; all of whom failed to perform in the tournament.
Babar scored 64 against New Zealand in the first match but took 90 balls and was dismissed on 23 against India. As for Rizwan, the skipper managed 3 and 46 against the Kiwis and India, respectively, to go with his mediocre captaincy.
Afridi went wicketless in the first game of the tournament while he took 2-74 against India in a lost cause. Rauf, meanwhile, took 2-83 against the Kiwis but went wicketless against India.
Former Pakistan cricketer, Shoaib Akhtar, has called Babar Azam a, "fraud" and said he has been a fraud from the beginning. This was after the former Pakistan captain couldn't make an impact with the bat against India, with the Men in Green ultimately losing the match by 6 wickets.
"We always compare Babar Azam to Virat Kohli. Now tell me who is hero of Virat Kohli? Sachin Tendulkar and he has scored 100 centuries and Virat is chasing his legacy," Shoaib Akhtar said on the show, "Game On Hai."
"Who is Babar Azam’s hero? Tuk tuk (Without naming any cricketer)," he said. “You have picked the wrong heroes. Your thought process is wrong. You were a fraud from the beginning."
"I would not even wish to talk about Pakistan cricket team. I am only doing this because I am getting paid. This is a waste of time. This deterioration I am seeing since 2001. I have worked with the captains, whose personality used to chance thrice a day," Akhtar said.
Akhtar was also full of praise for India’s game-winner, Virat Kohli, who ended the night with an unbeaten century. "I am not disappointed at all (by the defeat to India) because I knew what would happen. You can't select five bowlers, the whole world is playing six bowlers… you go with two all-rounders but this is just brainless and clueless management. I am really disappointed," Akhtar said in an emotional video that he posted on his X account.
"We have seen this in the past. When you tell Virat Kohli that he has to play against Pakistan, he will score a century. Hats off to him, he’s like a superstar! He’s a white ball run chaser! Modern-day great! No doubt about him. I’m very happy for him. He deserves all the praise," Akhtar said.
Shoaib Akhtar has also lampooned Pakistan management. Following their elimination, Mohammad Rizwan has been requested to step down as the team's white-ball captain. New Zealand's five-wicket victory over Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium formally eliminated defending champions Pakistan, who are hosting an ICC tournament after 29 years. Sikander Bakht, a former cricket player for Pakistan, claimed that because Mohammad Rizwan lacks the ability to communicate or explain himself, he was never the best candidate for captain.
The former Pakistan cricket player, who participated in 26 Test matches and 27 One-Day Internationals (ODI's), remarked that these players' central contracts ought to be terminated and that they should only be brought back after their performances begin to improve.
"We have to make changes. End their central contracts. Don't give them central contracts till the team starts performing. There should be some performance. In corporate setup, you are given a task. If you don't do it, you are asked to pack up and leave," he said.
It should be noted that Pakistan's failure to get to the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy means it is the third consecutive ICC tournament where they failed to reach the knockout stage. Pakistan had previously lost badly in the 2023 ODI World Cup and 2024 T20 World Cup group rounds.
One day before India delivered a knockout blow to the team, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials were brimming with confidence following a fantastic turnout at the Gaddafi Stadium for the Australia-England match. "It was an uplifting experience to see people respond and enjoy a match not involving Pakistan," a board official said.
"But now, the challenge is to ensure the crowds keep on coming for the remaining matches in Pakistan, because we are hosting such a big event after 29 years," he conceded.
A reliable source close to the board's commercial wing said that financially the PCB will not take a big hit even if Pakistan doesn't feature in the semi-finals as only the gate receipts and other avenues of ground income would be affected. The brand value of the beleaguered team is set to take a hit.
"We are guaranteed hosting fees, our share of ICC revenues including ticket sales, but there are other issues like people losing interest in the mega event, broadcasters showing half filled stadiums etc. And the biggest worry is despite the craze for cricket here, it may not be easy to sell Pakistan cricket as a brand in future," he said.
The defeat to India has seen fans and critics not even sparing the chairman of the board, Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the federal interior minister and is known to have the complete backing of the establishment.
While most of the former players might have avoided taking the chairman to the cleaners, there are still plenty of critics on social media and on YouTube who believe Naqvi is responsible for his choice of selectors and captain.
"His focus appeared to be on just the upgrade of the stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi whereas he forgot that the most important thing was to have a team that could make it to the final in the Champions Trophy because fans relate to performances," the source said.
Notwithstanding the team's disappointing show, the PCB has done it's best to make the Champions Trophy a successful event by showing its hospitality and providing the best security arrangements and facilities to the touring teams and officials.
The approximately 1.8 billion rupees spent on upgrading the stadiums is also something that will help Pakistan cricket but marketing advertising professional, Tahir Reza, believes that the biggest challenge is to keep fans connected with the team.
"It's easy to say cricket sells itself in Pakistan but that is not the case because the interest and attachment of fans, sponsors, advertisers, broadcasters is all linked to the performances as well," Tahir said.
He pointed out that already the overall budget in Pakistan for sponsorships, advertisements and endorsements was pretty limited, so companies tend to want the best value for their investments.
"If the team does not perform, and that too in a high-profile event like the CT, the sponsor wouldn't hesitate to invest his money in other public interest domains like music, entertainment, other sports etc." With the 10th edition of the Pakistan Super League coming up, Tahir believed the event will show how much of a negative impact the team's poor show in the Champions Trophy had on the money market.
Pakistan's tame surrender so far in the Champions Trophy, where they lost to both New Zealand and India, isn’t just a problem with talent. It is also because of a system that is perennially undergoing structural changes. In the last three years, the team has had 26 different selectors, 8 coaches and 4 captains.
Since winning the last edition of the Champions Trophy, apart from the T20 World Cups, where they reached one semi-final and a final in 2021 and 2022, their cricketing curve has been descending in ODIs and Tests. Since the World Test Championship came into effect, in three cycles their standing reads thus: 5th, 7th and 9th (bottom placed). In the 2019 and 2023 World Cup, they finished fifth, failing to even reach the semi-finals. Now, in a 8-team Champions Trophy, they have failed to get past the group stages.
Having gone about investing heavily on infrastructure for hosting the Champions Trophy, it appears Pakistan were never really ready for the tournament. Compared to their glory years, this is a team that is bereft of talent. Though they have historically relied on their pace pack, at different eras have had at least a couple of batsmen who were on par with the rest of the world, if not better.
However, in this current set-up, their best batsman, Babar Azam, is miles behind the Fab Four (Steve Smith (Australia); Kane Williamson (New Zealand); Virat Kohli (India) and Joe Root (England)). Beyond him, Pakistan doesn't have a batsman, whose arrival can signal fear in the opposition. From being a mercurial side that gave world cricket moments that stand the test of time, they are now a team that plays predictable cricket.
Their current coach, Aaqib Javed, who took charge in November, said his prime focus is the Champions Trophy, a tournament for which he would be investing in continuity. "Our main focus at the moment is on ODI cricket ahead of the Champions Trophy. You'll see a settled team in this format," said Aaqib, who was the bowling coach of Sri Lanka in mid-2024 before becoming a selector of Pakistan and then becoming a head coach in a span of five weeks.
Also, interestingly, while putting Aaqib in the hot seat, PCB also retained his spot in the selection committee, which his predecessor, Gary Kirsten – hired after the 2023 World Cup to make Pakistan world beaters in white-ball — didn’t enjoy and led to his exit without even coaching them in a single ODI.
So for the Champions Trophy, despite pressing for continuity, Aaqib and his panel of selectors, which includes former umpire Aleem Dar and stat analyst, Hassan Cheema and three bureaucrats, made changes at the eleventh hour. Though Saim Ayub’s unavailability was a huge setback for the batting unit, they dropped Abdullah Shafique one of the stand-out performers at the 2023 World Cup, on the back of his horrendous outing in South Africa where he became the first batsman to not get off the mark in a series.
In came Fakhar Zaman, who had fallen out with PCB after posting a critical comment for their decision to drop Babar. They also called back Faheem Ashraf, who had not played any international cricket in the whole of 2024.
If all of it wasn’t enough, their three fast bowlers – Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf – whom Aaqib compared with the two Ws (Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis), have seldom shown signs of coming of age. Despite being capable of clocking 145kmph and more, the trio have appeared listless in terms of plans and execution.
Since the start of the tri-series (with South Africa and New Zealand) and untill their match against India, Afridi has figures of: 3-88; 2-66; 1-45; 0-68 & 2-74. Shah has: 0-70; 1-68; 2-43; 2-63 & 0-37. Rauf has played only three, and in those matches has gone for 1-23 (6.2 overs), 2-83 & 0-52.
For a team that produced many game changing moments with the ball that led to winning games from improbable situations, against India they appeared an attack that couldn’t ask any questions beyond the two deliveries that Afridi and Abrar Ahmed bowled.
Former PCB chairman, Najam Sethi, indirectly held ex-Prime Minister, Imran Khan, responsible for Pakistan cricket’s downfall. In a post on X, Sethi, who served as PCB chairman from December 2022 to June 2023, expressed concern over the national team’s dismal performance, particularly after their early exit from the Champions Trophy.
In an X post, he wrote: "The nation is justifiably angry. The cricket fraternity says Pakistan has hit rock bottom. How come a cricket team that was once #1 in T20s (2018) and Tests (2016) and ODIs (1990 and 1996), which won the WC in 1992 and CT in 2017, is today equated with Zimbabwe?"
"The downfall started in 2019 when a new management under a new PM/Patron changed the domestic cricket structure that had served Pakistan reasonably well for decades and replaced it with an ill-suited Australian hybrid model. Political interference continued; contradictory PCB policies became the norm - foreign coaches were hired and sent packing, selectors were whimsically nominated, old discards were recruited to mentor and manage. Finally, player power, clash of captain egos and groupings in the team came to prevail over fumbling managements! The horrible result is before us."
"We can certainly restore our cricket fortunes if we recognise the nature of the problems and marshal the integrity, experience, knowledge and professionalism required to do the job."
This whole thing is really messy. All this doesn't have a central starting point. It stems from various matters. I don't believe it's fair for outsiders to call out specific players. You win as a team and you lose as one. It's up to the board to make the decisions. I suggest they tackle one issue at a time and not handle it simultaneously.