The resignation from the white-ball captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team of Babar Azam has meant an exposure of the problems of Pakistani cricket for the whole world to see. Mr Azam had been reappointed to the job after resigning after the disastrous defeat by the USA. which saw Pakistan eliminated in the last Champions Trophy at the group stage, and India. Since then, Shaheen Shah Afridi led the team to a whitewash defeat against New Zealand in a T20 series, and Shan Masud led the Test team to a whitewash defeat at home by Bangladesh. There have been no one-day internationals played, so there has been no appointment to that captaincy, but with an entire season ahead, in which there will be both red-ball and white-ball, all ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy, being hosted by Pakistan in February next year.
It is reasonably certain that when Pakistan takes the field next, someone will lead it. There is already a lively discussion started on which individual should do so, but that will miss the point: why is Pakistan apparently coming apart at the seams in all formats. One problem is the in-fighting in the team over the captaincy, and fueling that is a general instability in the PCB. It is not just the captain, but everyone behind: there has been a bewildering succession of coaches, chief selectors and PCB chairmen. The Chairman is changed by the PM, an office which has changed hands four times since 2021, and every Chairman brings a new chairman of selectors, a new coach, and they have a new captain imposed on them by the team.
Without arguing for one-man dictatorships, someone has to put a foot down. Over 40 years ago it was the captain, a certain Imran Khan, who did so, and a decade later there was a World Cup win. Another problem seems to be that there vis not enough understanding of the dynamics of modern sport. One factor preventing new talent developing is the impermanence of the domestic cricket structure. There is not enough adherence to merit. There must be the political will to take hard decisions, otherwise the team will never resume winning ways. The role of the Prime Minister in the cricket structure no longer makes any kind of sense, now that government departments are no longer sponsoring teams. With the PCB now getting revenue from the ICC, it is not even dependent on it for money. The PM can still swagger if the teams, but so long as he has a hand, it will never win.
