The appalling state of sports in Pakistan and the common denominator:

Pakistan were once the trailblazer in the field of Hockey, in the domain of Squash it had no match as in the race of global dominance, two Pakistani athletes, Jahanghir Khan and Jansher Khan were competing against each other rather than the rest of the world. The sheer dominance of Pakistan in the realm of Squash could be gauged from the fact that from 1980 to 2000, Pakistan's athletes won 14 out of 20 world championships. And in the same time bracket, Pakistan were ruling the domain of Hockey too with four World Championships to their name. Interestingly enough, in the same era, Pakistan managed to bag its first ODI World Cup in 1992. So in the 1990s, Pakistan was indeed a powerhouse of world champions in the domain of sports, but then suddenly things started to fall apart dramatically for them, just like the house of cards due to the common denominators of nepotism, political appointments in sports boards, and a lack of long term planning.

The gradual meltdown post-2000s:

Before the 2000s, Pakistan were a team to be afraid of, but unfortunately, things kept deteriorating afterwards, eventually leading us to the current position where we have emerged as Minnow’s favorite target for an upset victory. Before the 2000s, Pakistan played seven ODI World Cups and managed to feature in the semi finals in six of them. But in the post-2000s era, Pakistan still featured in the 7 ODI World Cup but only managed to make it to the semi finals once, i.e., in 2011.

Also the mind boggling disparity in the Pakistan team’s winning stats pre and post-2000s era against SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) nations and arch rival India clearly suggests that the damage to Pakistan cricket has been happening for too long, but it was only now that this big rift become glaringly apparent.

Pakistan team stats against SENA nations and India pre 2000 era



Pakistan team stats against SENA nations and India post 2000 era





The baffling tale of failure and Pakistan cricket's parallel universe:

Unlike Hockey and Squash where we lost track due to lack of attention and insufficient funding, in cricket we lost the plot despite pumping excessive funds into the system and extra eyeballs attention. Also traditionally, the more incentives, the better the performances, but ironically, Pakistan cricket have even falsified this dogma by its current underwhelming performance, especially in T20 World Cup 2024 despite numerous incentives. Another testament to the existence of Pakistan cricket's parallel universe of failure is the fact that instead of pondering over the team failures, the current players and management celebrate them in an emphatic fashion. Multiple cake cutting ceremonies, lavish parties, and big meet ups post failure are just manifestations of them. Thus, indeed, Pakistan cricket is breathing in a parallel universe where even the factors that commonly contribute to success are garnering failures.

The pariah state of domestic cricket:

One of the biggest reasons behind Pakistan's current cricket woes is its total apathy towards the domestic cricket system. The very fact that none of the top performers in domestic cricket like Kamran Ghulam, Sahibzada Farhan, Omair Yousuf could make it to Pakistan's reserve squad for the T20 World Cup let alone be a part of the main roster, just shows how much importance we accord to our domestic cricket. In fact, for the current PCB management, this wasn't a big enough snub for the domestic cricket so they went out of their way to recruit guys like Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim the biggest critics of Pakistan's domestic cricket. And after all these events there is no wonder why cricketers like Hammad Azam, Sami Aslam have left Pakistan cricket for good to venture their luck somewhere else.

Thus, because of this secondary importance to domestic cricket, cricketers like Shadab Khan, Imam ul Haq, Haris Rauf deliberately don't partake in domestic cricket despite having been exposed badly at the international arena repeatedly due to their flawed techniques. In principle, struggling players should be made to perform in the domestic tournaments in order to forge their way back into the national side, besides erecting flaws in their techniques in these tournaments, but as mentioned earlier, Pakistan cricket is living in a parallel universe.

Over commercialization of cricket:

The over commercialization of a sport like cricket has become a menace for team Pakistan, as it not only diverts players attention away from the sport but also makes a mockery of cricket. For instance, in PSL the organizers deliberately opt for shorter boundaries and flat decks just to ensure 'entertaining' games, but this in turn exposes our players badly in the ICC events where big names like Iftikhar Ahmed, Saim Ayub, Usman Khan fail miserably to successfully chase even a run on a ball target let alone play an explosive innings with a 150 plus Strike Rate (SR) which is just too common for them in leagues like PSL. And the irony is that Pakistan pitch curators can make all sort of tracks be it turning ones, bouncy decks, grassy or red clayed decks, but it is a pity that PCB still doesn't organize matches on such venues that have conditions identical to those of SENA nations, as has also been highlighted by Pakistan's former captain and Head Coach, Misbah ul Haq.

Dearth of long-term planning:

Another big reason for Pakistan's downfall is the lack of long term planning. And this thing is evident from the fact that PCB has changed the domestic structure multiple times in a matter of decade and this lack of long term strategy also became apparent recently when instead of opting for Under-19 stars into the Pakistan side, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi went in to rope players like Imad Wasim and Mohammad Amir who not only had earlier retired but also had made no appearances in the Pakistan cricket's domestic circuit. In contrast, a champion side like Australia afforded a place to a youngster like Jake Fraser-McGurk in their reserve squad for the T20 World Cup while Pakistan failed to name even a single player from its enormously talented Under-19 side.

The obsession with stats but not results:

Another dilemma for Pakistan cricket has been its stat padding batters and flashy bowlers, who indeed have the best bowling and batting stats in the cricketing world, but when it comes to backing them up with some glory or trophy, they fail miserably in this domain. Recently, Babar Azam emerged as the highest run scorer in the T20I, with Haris Rauf emerging as the fastest bowler to claim 100 T20I wickets. but still a shame for Pakistan that after having a crop of players with some excellent stats, the national side went crashing out of the World Cup by suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of a minnow like USA. So the bottom line here is that the fortunes of Team Pakistan are not changing anytime soon unless our players forsake their individual centric approach for a concerted team effort.

Too many incentives but still no improvement—a worrying sign for Pakistan cricket:

Shahbaz Ahmed, the former hockey world champion, once said following regarding the importance of incentives in the domain of sports, "There are no incentives, why will any player play? The youngsters will come towards the sport when you give them incentive and security to play,". But Pakistan cricket seems to be immune to this dogma.

The very fact that Pakistan players had been offered multiple incentives, including state sponsored Hajj, 100,000$ bounty to each player, free plots and cars etc., but still failed to yield the desired result clearly shows that there is no issue of lack of motivation, but something is disturbingly wrong with our players skill sets and quotient. Thus unless we don't promote the right players for the right job, these issues are going to persist.

Merit - a term alien to PCB:

Firstly, how could one expect the selection committee to select players on merit when its members themselves are proteges of the PCB chairman and are handpicked on a very arbitrary criterion that sometimes involves closeness and proximity to the members of the cricket board. The very fact that the selection committee persisted with the same set of players after repeated failures in series prior to the T20 World Cup 2024 just reinforces the fact that performance is not a criterion for selection in team Pakistan.

The lack of accountability and cosmetic changes to the team is another reason behind PCT's recent embarrassing performances. The reinstatement of Babar Azam as a captain in less than 5 months after his resignation owing to a dismal ODI World Cup campaign, and the re-induction of out of form players like Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali repeatedly into the side clearly depict an element of favoritism as top domestic performers like Mohammad Ali and Sahibzada Farhan are still yearning for just a decent opportunity.

The lack of killer instinct:

It is a famous saying that whenever you find your enemy in a vulnerable position, go for the kill rather than the war of attrition, but for Pakistan cricket team, the paradigm seems to be quite opposite. In just last two years, we have suffered badly due to this lack of killer instinct in a number of crunch matches. The heartbreaking defeats in matches like T20 World Cup semifinal 2021, Asia Cup final 2022, and the last 2 ICC T20 World Cup encounters against India are just a few to name. In all of the aforementioned matches, Pakistan were tantalizingly close to their victory but still managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Thus, this inability to finish the job well clearly depicts the lack of mental toughness on the part of our players, who unfortunately now can not chase a target with run a ball required.

Mental brittleness of current players:

The issue of mental toughness had not been traditionally a big issue for the Pakistan Shaheens, but of late it has become glaringly evident that big names in our team like Saim Ayub, Azam Khan, Usman Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed suffer big time from this mental uneasiness and thus were unable to give their 100 percent. The very fact that Pakistan team bowed out of the tournament despite having the most experienced squad in Caribbean conditions speaks volumes about our players skills and their inability to handle pressure well on big occasions.

The cricketers turned celebrities dilemma:

Unfortunately, the stardom and limelight have turned out to be inimical for our cricketers, as after a flying start, they lose their direction quickly owing to a lack of focus and easy earnings from different promotions. The cases of Umar Akmal, Imam ul Haq, Babar Azam are there to be seen by everyone. Even the latest fiasco in ICC tournaments against the Minnows and the nonchalant attitude of players afterwards are poignant reminders of it. Some were seen eating Doner Kebab; others found Jay walking in downtowns and some were too busy in entertaining fans in lucrative meet ups.

Conclusion:

To conclude, the lamenting woes of Pakistan cricket are here to stay unless we select the right players for the right job. Also it is high time to replace non performing blue eyed cricketers with young talented crop of players from our domestic cricket and under-19 side, as also pointed out recently by Pakistan legendary pacer Wasim Akram. In addition to the above steps, there is a compelling need to work on the mental conditioning of players for high pressure situations. Also, there is a need to inculcate the importance of teamwork to the players, who unfortunately looked obsessed with individual achievements at the expense of team glory. Also, the ailing PCB board desperately needs a chairman and management appointed on merit rather than political affiliations. So there is no silver lining in the current overarching dark clouds for Pakistan cricket unless we fix the above issues with the utmost sincerity.