Former PCB chairman Ehsan Mani is not happy with the condition of Pakistan cricket, addressing a long list of lingering issues plaguing it.
The era when Pakistan reigned as a cricketing powerhouse feels like a distant memory. During the 1980s and 1990s, legends such as Wasim Akram, Saeed Anwar, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Javed Miandad, and Saqlain Mushtaq struck fear into the hearts of international teams – particularly arch-rivals India. These players defined an era of dominance, but over time, cricket’s prominence in Pakistan has steadily declined, and the evidence is unmistakable.
The national team’s recent performances paint a grim picture of inconsistency. Early exits in the group stages of the 2023 ODI World Cup, the 2024 T20 World Cup, and now the Champions Trophy underscore this downward trend. A home Test series defeat to Bangladesh further exposed the team’s struggles. While a Test series victory against England on home soil offers a rare bright spot, even that triumph was overshadowed by a last-minute decision to alter the pitch conditions – a move that raised more questions than it answered.
The Pakistan cricket team’s lacklustre performances have cast a harsh spotlight on the administrators of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Over the past three to four years, the PCB has experienced a revolving door of leadership, with multiple individuals stepping into the chairman’s role. Notable names like Ramiz Raja, Najam Sethi, Zaka Ashraf, and Mohsin Naqvi have each taken their turn at the helm of this prestigious position, yet stability remains elusive.
Ehsan Mani, who served as PCB chairman from 2018 to 2021, offered his perspective on the situation in an interview with Hindustan Times. He emphasised that Pakistan is not lacking in talent; rather, the key lies in bringing order to the cricketing ecosystem. According to Mani, the potential is there. It’s simply a matter of getting the house in order.
“Look, there’s no shortage of talent in Pakistan. It’s a matter of just going back and rethinking how to take Pakistan or cricket forward. I had started the process by introducing a new format for first-class cricket, and in fact, for all forms of cricket in Pakistan, based on provincial teams,” said Mani.
“What we are having in Pakistan is a lot of cricket but very little quality cricket. And I think people have to go back to the point of ensuring that the basic structure of the game in Pakistan is fit for purpose and suitable for modern-day requirements. Well, PCB needs to go back and look at the whole game structure in Pakistan. Make sure there’s high-quality, competitive cricket being played, which is not the case today in Pakistan.”
In recent years, Pakistan’s cricket team has seen its captaincy resemble a game of musical chairs. The leadership baton first passed to Babar Azam, then to Shaheen Shah Afridi, only to return to Babar again. This cycle unfolded between the 2023 ODI World Cup and the T20 World Cup eight months later in the USA and Caribbean, reflecting a lack of continuity at the top. Adding to the turbulence coaches Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie stepped down from their roles with the white-ball and red-ball teams, respectively. Gillespie, in particular, has not held back in his criticism, openly questioning Aaqib Javed’s appointment as coach and the process that led to it.
Mani agrees there is a strong need for consistency, which needs to come from the top. “Obviously, the policy must come from the top. And the same with the support for the team itself, from coaches and managers and so on. There must be consistency in that, and there must be clarity of the way forward for the team as a whole,” he stated.
“Hopefully, the current chairman has been there for a while, and he will start coming up with his thoughts and ideas. But there should be a consensus on how to take Pakistan cricket forward. It shouldn’t be left to one person. It should be a collective issue of the whole Pakistan cricket board,” added the 79-year-old.
Recently, former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi shared a striking revelation: the current PCB chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, admitted to him that he lacks knowledge about cricket. Afridi went further, declaring that the sport in Pakistan is in critical condition, likening it to a patient in the ICU, and insisted that accountability is overdue. In contrast, Mani takes a different stance, brushing aside the naysayers. He believes that strong leadership from the chairman is the key, and once that’s in place, everything else will naturally fall into line.
“I do not give any credibility to what Shahid Afridi or anyone else says. They have their personal agendas or whatever. So I wouldn’t go there. No comment on that. All I would say is that leadership must come from the chairman and from the board of directors of PCB. For the rest, I don’t give much credibility to these criticisms,” said Mani.
‘Disappointing how ICC managed Champions Trophy hosting’
Pakistan hosted the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 under a hybrid model, with India’s matches shifted to Dubai. The tournament schedule, however, was only unveiled a mere two months prior, a decision that left former PCB chairman Ehsan Mani unimpressed with the ICC’s management of the eight-team event.
“It’s very disappointing the way it was managed. The responsibility for this is with the ICC. When they allocated events to India and Pakistan, knowing the current relations between the countries, then the onus was entirely on the ICC to ensure that the event and the issues that came up had been dealt with much, much before the tournament actually was starting,” said Mani, who served as the ICC President for the period between 2003 to 2006.
“This was left to the 11th hour. It was totally wrong of the ICC not to have dealt with this much, much earlier. Got both the boards together and come up with an ICC solution, not a PCB or BCCI solution.”
Mani brushed off claims that India gained an edge by playing all their matches in Dubai during the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025. Despite India’s triumphant campaign, concerns were raised about this perceived advantage, arguing that Rohit Sharma and his team benefited disproportionately from familiar conditions. Mani, however, remained unconvinced by the narrative.
“The pitch was the same for all the teams playing there. Yes, BCCI played in one ground for all these matches, but that was something that the ICC had decided right from the outset they would do that. There’s no point of being critical about that later on,” said Mani.
Ahead of the Champions Trophy, the ICC declared that matches between India and Pakistan scheduled in either country during ICC events within the 2024-2027 rights cycle would take place at neutral venues. As a result, Pakistan will now play their T20 World Cup 2026 matches in Sri Lanka instead of India, marking a significant shift in the tournament’s planning.
“It’s not a matter of ICC. This is really a BCCI call, isn’t it? They decided they won’t tour Pakistan. Pakistan agreed to tour for the World Cup and BCCI didn’t deliver what was agreed when I was chairman of PCB. If you look at the ICC minutes, there are recorded assurances that the BCCI and the Government of India would ensure that adequate visas for Pakistan journalists, fans and officials would be given,” said Mani.
“These didn’t materialise. So, really, it’s for BCCI to decide. Today, you have Mr. Jay Shah, who is chairman of ICC. He’s been very involved with Indian cricket. It’s his responsibility to make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.”
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