The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been accused of running the senior men's national team from a remote control, and its chief, Mohsin Naqvi, was called out for failing to empower the coaches and captains. The criticism continues to mount for the cricket board after it pulled off an unprecedented move, replacing seven players and two coaches in the squad for the ongoing series against England.
Following losses in the first and second Tests against England, Pakistan, led by Babar Azam, was already under a lot of pressure, and the PCB stirred the pot further by sending players like Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha back home. Test coach Sarfaraz Ahmed was also not spared and was replaced by white-ball coach Mike Hesson for the third and final Test in Birmingham.
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif took to social media, questioning the PCB behind sending Sarfaraz and bowling coach Umar Gul to the UK in the first place if the intention was always to control everything themselves.
Deep Dive
Why did the PCB replace seven players and coaches during the series against England?
What were the reasons behind sending Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq back from England?
How is the PCB planning to address the instability within the Pakistan cricket team?
He then gave the examples of Jason Gillespie and Gary Kirsten, who earlier resigned from their posts after not being given freedom by the PCB and Aaqib Javed (director of high performance and one of the selectors). Latif didn't stop there as he hinted that skipper Babar might be the next name on the chopping block.
"If the team had to be run by remote control, then why were Sarfaraz and Umar Gul sent? Why were the selection powers taken away from Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie? And if captain Babar Azam wasn’t listening, the captain should have been sacked — so why were Sarfaraz and Umar Gul sent back instead? Is Babar Azam the next target?” Latif wrote on X.
Criticism mounts
The PCB has been lambasted left, right and centre for replacing seven players midway through a series. The likes of Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Ramiz Raja, Basit Ali and Shahid Afridi have all hit out at the move, saying it will create more instability within the squad.
Earlier, PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi defended the move, saying the PCB took such a drastic and harsh step for the betterment of the team. Pakistan have been lacklustre to say the least in the Test format and are at the bottom of the World Test Championship (WTC) standings.
Pakistan have never been in with a shout of reaching the WTC final, and this is the fourth time in a row that the side will finish in the bottom half of the standings.
Earlier this year, Pakistan once again fiddled around with Test captaincy, replacing Shan Masood with Babar. The call was taken after Bangladesh defeated Pakistan 2-0. Under Babar, Pakistan drew the two-match series against the West Indies but things quickly went south in England.