What's new

Is the life being sucked out of Pakistan cricket by persistent poor results?

MenInG

PakPassion Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Runs
217,990
We may be part of ICC's award-winning teams; some players may have the best averages etc. but the fact is that nothing succeeds like success.

We simply do not have the types of match-winners who will bring audiences to stadiums - capture the imaginations etc.

Result is that Pakistan is just about 2 weeks away from its most important event of its cricketing calendar and there is little buzz about it.

This is what losses do to our cricket. This is what our players need to understand. This is the lesson for the people who run our cricket. This is a lesson for all of us.
 
The life being sucked out of Pakistan cricket isn’t just the poor results, but the stubbornness in not doing the right things that are required to match the best teams in the world.

How Pakistan can have 3 anchors in their top 3 in T20i is absurd! There are people who love this approach
 
yep, ive never felt less enthused about the pak cricket team in my life. we seem to have adopted a crazy individual focussed mindset where babars (lets face it) mostly meaningless odi stats are celebrated as if he's the second coming of viv richards. give me a team of average individuals who wins game any day.

also the glaring realisation that a kungla semi pro PCB cannot compete with the big 3 is disheartening, regardless of the odd good result here or there, there is no hope for Pakistan to be a consistent top team until the setup is professionalized.

i know I'm not alone, a lot of other fans know its not worth the emotional investment, the players are soft celebrebabies who are mentally, and physically weaker than the best and they know it. theres a false bravado to the players which belies the underlying temerity of the squad in general.

the return of departmental cricket is the coal icing on this poop cake.
 
Pakistan used to be a very exciting and unpredictable team. It has gotten a bit boring over the years.

Apart from Shaheen, Naseem, and Fakhar, nobody is really that exciting to watch consistently.
 
Last edited:
Pakistan used to be a very exciting and unpredictable team. It has gotten a bit boring over the years.

Apart from Shaheen, Naseem, and Fakhar, nobody is really that exciting to watch consistently.

Misbah has destroyed our brand!
 
Unfair to blame individuals as I believe this is down to a few things:

A lack of world class cricketers
The style of cricket Pakistan is playing
A lack of leaders on and off the field
A lack of planning from the Board with too many panic and last-minute decisions
Too much focus on the PSL meaning that other domestic tournaments are an afterthought
Constant changing of the domestic cricket structure
Players just wanting to make money from T20 leagues and don't want to do the hard yards in 4-day domestic cricket

I honestly worry about the future of Pakistan cricket, especially in Test cricket.
 
Last edited:
Lol Babar has achieved severely incompetent results in the last year and we are still scared to remove him as captain out of fear of upsetting him and destabilizing Pakistan Cricket. In contrast India wasted no effort in removing Kohli who was a ten times more successful captain and better player than Babar and had ten times more adulation and fan following than babar but the BCCI made the decision fearlessly.

The captain of the team sets the tone for the cricketing culture and direction of the team.
 
Barring Shaheen, Pakistan cricket is just unwatchable. The problem is 3 fold:

Firstly, our ex-players are stuck in the 90s, so much so that the 92 World Cup has become the coaching template that defines Pakistan cricket even though this was over 30 years ago.

Secondly, Pakistan cricket lost its swag after the 2003 World Cup because Inzi allowed the Tableeghi to infilitrate the dressing room of the Pakistan team. Saqlain has given them the same privileges. To see players who've been involved in spot fixing and scandals with various girls perform sajda just doesn't sit right with me.

But the biggest problem of them all is Misbah's brand of cricket and school of thought which has done immense damage to Pakistan cricket. I could write a book about his history but I want to highlight his coaching tenure, where he ousted Mickey Arthur whilst he was a PCB member and came up with Babar/Rizwan opening combo. These frauds have now bashed minnows + B/C bowling attacks to pad up their stats. They've fooled the ICC and have received a number of awards recently. This sends a terrible message to aspiring cricketers in Pakistan, who'll believe they're the gold standard of batting as openers in T20I cricket. Babar has decided to put his personal milestones and achievements ahead of the success of the team. Just like when Misbah was batting for his place in his side in Mohali, bad habits have rubbed off to Babar and we're now paying the price in the form of substandard cricket.
 
What is extremely concerning is that there are more things wrong with Pakistan cricket than things that are right.

It's heading in the wrong direction and very quickly too.

It's a slippery slope that could be difficult to climb back up on.
 
Last edited:
What is extremely concerning is that there are more things wrong with Pakistan cricket than things that are right.

It's heading in the wrong direction and very quickly too.

It's a slippery slope that could be difficult to climb back up on.

Has it recently started to head in the wrong direction or did the process begin as soon as Mickey was let go of?

Interested to hear your thoughts
 
yep, ive never felt less enthused about the pak cricket team in my life. we seem to have adopted a crazy individual focussed mindset where babars (lets face it) mostly meaningless odi stats are celebrated as if he's the second coming of viv richards. give me a team of average individuals who wins game any day.

also the glaring realisation that a kungla semi pro PCB cannot compete with the big 3 is disheartening, regardless of the odd good result here or there, there is no hope for Pakistan to be a consistent top team until the setup is professionalized.

i know I'm not alone, a lot of other fans know its not worth the emotional investment, the players are soft celebrebabies who are mentally, and physically weaker than the best and they know it. theres a false bravado to the players which belies the underlying temerity of the squad in general.

the return of departmental cricket is the coal icing on this poop cake.

Summed it up better than I could.
 
For me its just the frustration that cricket feels unfair. If you have money like big 3 teams then you play the most matches, have the best leagues and so ultimately have the best teams. If they are beaten by other teams like Pakistan it's more of an upset or an exception. Before cricket felt a lot more like an even contest.
Only T20 cricket is fun not just because of the short matches but the unpredictablity and high number of upsets. Odi and test cricket is only good between evenly matched sides like England vs Australia etc.
 
For me its just the frustration that cricket feels unfair. If you have money like big 3 teams then you play the most matches, have the best leagues and so ultimately have the best teams. If they are beaten by other teams like Pakistan it's more of an upset or an exception. Before cricket felt a lot more like an even contest.
Only T20 cricket is fun not just because of the short matches but the unpredictablity and high number of upsets. Odi and test cricket is only good between evenly matched sides like England vs Australia etc.
Yep, blame others like always. How does having the best leagues help the big 3 in test cricket? Also, several Pakistani players play all sorts of leagues (including BBL, Natwest) across the globe, all throughout the year.
 
I don't think it's just about results.

If you play to win, if you provide value for time to fans, if you make them exited to watch you , if you .....

Pakistan does not have those players.
 
Ours test bowling is so rubbish it makes cricket unwatchable sucks all Life out of a fan as a good test attack is the best thing to watch as a fan
 
Absolutely on field off field Pakistan are rock botton, agreeing to a 3 game t20 series vs AFG also sums up our status
 
Well, I have a few things to say...

Lets look at every angle of the Pakistan Cricket situation.

First of all, it seems that there is too much of an unrealistic expectation on the Pakistan players, that they are meant to be as good as the Wasim, Waqar, Imran, Akhtar etc. But this is just too unrealistic to expect the players of nowadays to be as good as the players of the 90s or 80s or actually, even the 2010s, not only in Pakistan but actually every single cricketing nation. I noticed that (overall) a generation of players is worse than the previous generation of players. For example players who made debut in 2020s will be worse than players of 2010s, and so players of 2020s will be significantly worse than players of 90s. I actually have no explanation for this phenomena, but I have noticed it and I believe in it. But this is not the point of my post for this thread, so we will move on.

It is best to simply get rid of this expectation that Pakistan are a top team like the 90s and they produce great players like 90s. If this expectation is gone I do believe that one will enjoy watching Pakistan better. I have been watching cricket from 2016, and so I never saw these legendary Waqars, Wasims from the 90s (play live), which is why I don't have any problem watching the current players that a lot of other Pakistan fans face.

Test Cricket
First - Class Cricket, Test Cricket is just not popular at all in Pakistan, this is the facts. And the Pakistan cricket team is supposed to be a representative of the cricketing society in Pakistan, and as I just said, Pakistan does not care about Test cricket anymore.

January 2021 - Pakistan has got Sri Lanka, West Indies, and Bangladesh to tour. Its great that those teams toured Pakistan, but the best nations are yet to arrive. However in January 2021 Pakistan Hosts a 2-Match Test Series against South Africa. This series was actually a decent, entertaining series to watch. Unfortunately, this series will be / is easily forgotten by most Pakistanis because this series was in the pandemic. Lets also mention the pitches were great, the Rawalpindi pitch was a fast bowlers pitch.

2022 - 2022 Was meant to be a great year for Pakistan Cricket, And specifically Pakistan Test Cricket. In the Year of 2022, Pakistan hosted Australia, England and New Zealand for Test Series (and more) each. Since India will never tour Pakistan, basically, in 2022 the three best cricketing nations were touring Pakistan in this year. Regardless of whether Pakistan loses these test series or not, it should've been a great year and great test series. But it ended up being sad, boring and full of frustration. Its never good to blame and have the hate people, but what Ramiz Raja did with the pitches caused severe damage. For the Australia series, and part of England series, the pitches were completely flat,(and then Ramiz Raja admitting it and saying its because hes scared of Aussies), teams were scoring 500+ by doing nothing, the worst test cricket was being played. The Test matches vs New Zealand were decent, but the damage was done. Test Cricket in Pakistan is now probably the worst test cricket across the nine test nations. And then we good to the third test between England and Pakistan, where England breaks Fortress Karachi, but once this fortress was broken, the facts are noyone cared. Some say Test Cricket in Pakistan is declining, I say Test Cricket in Pakistanis well dead. Just look at the empty seats.

ODI
ODIs i'm sure is still likeable amongst most Pakistan fans, but honestly, ODIs, apart from the ODI world cup, has no purpose, and is completely dead. A format like this is not sustainable, bilateral ODIS, actually, Bilateral anything is completely useless and should not exist!!! How the ICC didn't realise this, but at the same time i'm not surprised.

T20
T20 is the only format that Pakistan has a good team. Yes, I know many people here hate T20 "circus" cricket, but unfortunately this is situation, the reality of cricket in this current moment, and if you want to keep watching this rubbish cricket sport, then its best to accept that T20 is the only format Pakistan is good at, and its also the most important format for Cricket.

Cricket as a Sport
After these years of watching cricket, I have been really frustrated at how disorganised cricket is, how ruined it is. I have debated whether its worth writing about all my ideas on how to make cricket a better sport, but I want to move on and stop watching this horrendous sport, because its just greed, disorganisation, cluelessness. So, point is, Pakistan cricket is not the only problem, its also cricket as a sport being in a very poor situation.

Fooled by ourselves, Fooled by the others
First issue is a lot of Pakistanis give the unrealistic expectations, I already mentioned this, let move on. But I have realised that a lot of players, commentators, coaches, give this illusion that Pakistan has a lot of talent. Over the last 5 years, there have so many players, coaches who say "Pakistan has a lot of talent, Pakistan has lot of this" its annoying to see, given the fact that Pakistan is nowhere near as good as Australia, India, England in ODIS and Tests (on a a consistent basis). I used to like the England commentators, but now most of them are very annoying as all. most of them overpraise this "amazing talent" of Pakistan. And then you have some Pakistan players winning awards, being in the best team of the year for all the wrong reasons.

Friendly Attitude
2022 was one of the worst years of Pakistan cricket, and thats taking into account Pakistan making the T20WC and Asia Cup Final. In the last three years, its clearly noticeable that this generation of cricketers have all been friendly to each other, they just smile, and chat and sometimes even hug each other in the middle of a game, or before the game. Why do I have a problem with this? Obviously, players are not soldiers where they have to sledge and have anger on the opponent, but the chatting, and all the casualness we see nowadays, clearly and gives implies that the game has no competition, regardless of whether the game is competitive or not. And sports cannot exist without competitions. The stupid media videos of all these cheering up stuff that have been posted ever since Ramiz Raja was chairman has made Pakistan cricket look stupid. I am saying that Causal chatting with the other is not banned, but just do t after the match!!!! When the match is over and teams have shaken hands.
 
People are waking up to the realization that the current circus that is the PCB will never let a professional set-up be in place, and hence our cricket will always be light-years behind other nations, specially in Test cricket.

Whether its Najam Sethi, Ramiz Raja, Ehsan Mani/Wasim Khan, none of these buffoons could do away with the one simple thing that would make a huge difference - removing interference from the political appointee of the term.

Since the country’s political situation is so volatile, any set-up that comes knows they are a temporary fix and only work towards short term glory. Or in Najam Sethi’s case, filling their coffers till the day they are inevitably kicked out.
 
Just poor marketing, thats all.

Wait for the the team song to be released. Trans group doesnt really do well in promoting the event. Plus the franchises dont have good marketing teams
 
Misbah has destroyed our brand!

It was Israeli conspiracy
It was American sazish
It was Rizwan
It was the Gooras
It was India

Remember one thing, one person or group of people cant destroy anything unless the party being destroyed is willing

Plz stop playing the blame game.

We are short on talent.
 
Well, I have a few things to say...

Lets look at every angle of the Pakistan Cricket situation.

First of all, it seems that there is too much of an unrealistic expectation on the Pakistan players, that they are meant to be as good as the Wasim, Waqar, Imran, Akhtar etc. But this is just too unrealistic to expect the players of nowadays to be as good as the players of the 90s or 80s or actually, even the 2010s, not only in Pakistan but actually every single cricketing nation. I noticed that (overall) a generation of players is worse than the previous generation of players. For example players who made debut in 2020s will be worse than players of 2010s, and so players of 2020s will be significantly worse than players of 90s. I actually have no explanation for this phenomena, but I have noticed it and I believe in it. But this is not the point of my post for this thread, so we will move on.

It is best to simply get rid of this expectation that Pakistan are a top team like the 90s and they produce great players like 90s. If this expectation is gone I do believe that one will enjoy watching Pakistan better. I have been watching cricket from 2016, and so I never saw these legendary Waqars, Wasims from the 90s (play live), which is why I don't have any problem watching the current players that a lot of other Pakistan fans face.

Test Cricket
First - Class Cricket, Test Cricket is just not popular at all in Pakistan, this is the facts. And the Pakistan cricket team is supposed to be a representative of the cricketing society in Pakistan, and as I just said, Pakistan does not care about Test cricket anymore.

January 2021 - Pakistan has got Sri Lanka, West Indies, and Bangladesh to tour. Its great that those teams toured Pakistan, but the best nations are yet to arrive. However in January 2021 Pakistan Hosts a 2-Match Test Series against South Africa. This series was actually a decent, entertaining series to watch. Unfortunately, this series will be / is easily forgotten by most Pakistanis because this series was in the pandemic. Lets also mention the pitches were great, the Rawalpindi pitch was a fast bowlers pitch.

2022 - 2022 Was meant to be a great year for Pakistan Cricket, And specifically Pakistan Test Cricket. In the Year of 2022, Pakistan hosted Australia, England and New Zealand for Test Series (and more) each. Since India will never tour Pakistan, basically, in 2022 the three best cricketing nations were touring Pakistan in this year. Regardless of whether Pakistan loses these test series or not, it should've been a great year and great test series. But it ended up being sad, boring and full of frustration. Its never good to blame and have the hate people, but what Ramiz Raja did with the pitches caused severe damage. For the Australia series, and part of England series, the pitches were completely flat,(and then Ramiz Raja admitting it and saying its because hes scared of Aussies), teams were scoring 500+ by doing nothing, the worst test cricket was being played. The Test matches vs New Zealand were decent, but the damage was done. Test Cricket in Pakistan is now probably the worst test cricket across the nine test nations. And then we good to the third test between England and Pakistan, where England breaks Fortress Karachi, but once this fortress was broken, the facts are noyone cared. Some say Test Cricket in Pakistan is declining, I say Test Cricket in Pakistanis well dead. Just look at the empty seats.

ODI
ODIs i'm sure is still likeable amongst most Pakistan fans, but honestly, ODIs, apart from the ODI world cup, has no purpose, and is completely dead. A format like this is not sustainable, bilateral ODIS, actually, Bilateral anything is completely useless and should not exist!!! How the ICC didn't realise this, but at the same time i'm not surprised.

T20
T20 is the only format that Pakistan has a good team. Yes, I know many people here hate T20 "circus" cricket, but unfortunately this is situation, the reality of cricket in this current moment, and if you want to keep watching this rubbish cricket sport, then its best to accept that T20 is the only format Pakistan is good at, and its also the most important format for Cricket.

Cricket as a Sport
After these years of watching cricket, I have been really frustrated at how disorganised cricket is, how ruined it is. I have debated whether its worth writing about all my ideas on how to make cricket a better sport, but I want to move on and stop watching this horrendous sport, because its just greed, disorganisation, cluelessness. So, point is, Pakistan cricket is not the only problem, its also cricket as a sport being in a very poor situation.

Fooled by ourselves, Fooled by the others
First issue is a lot of Pakistanis give the unrealistic expectations, I already mentioned this, let move on. But I have realised that a lot of players, commentators, coaches, give this illusion that Pakistan has a lot of talent. Over the last 5 years, there have so many players, coaches who say "Pakistan has a lot of talent, Pakistan has lot of this" its annoying to see, given the fact that Pakistan is nowhere near as good as Australia, India, England in ODIS and Tests (on a a consistent basis). I used to like the England commentators, but now most of them are very annoying as all. most of them overpraise this "amazing talent" of Pakistan. And then you have some Pakistan players winning awards, being in the best team of the year for all the wrong reasons.

Friendly Attitude
2022 was one of the worst years of Pakistan cricket, and thats taking into account Pakistan making the T20WC and Asia Cup Final. In the last three years, its clearly noticeable that this generation of cricketers have all been friendly to each other, they just smile, and chat and sometimes even hug each other in the middle of a game, or before the game. Why do I have a problem with this? Obviously, players are not soldiers where they have to sledge and have anger on the opponent, but the chatting, and all the casualness we see nowadays, clearly and gives implies that the game has no competition, regardless of whether the game is competitive or not. And sports cannot exist without competitions. The stupid media videos of all these cheering up stuff that have been posted ever since Ramiz Raja was chairman has made Pakistan cricket look stupid. I am saying that Causal chatting with the other is not banned, but just do t after the match!!!! When the match is over and teams have shaken hands.

Good post for someone who only started watching cricket in 2016, you've genuinely tried to understand how cricket was in 90s and 00s and have posted good stuff. 👍
 
It was Israeli conspiracy
It was American sazish
It was Rizwan
It was the Gooras
It was India

Remember one thing, one person or group of people cant destroy anything unless the party being destroyed is willing

Plz stop playing the blame game.

We are short on talent.

I can revisit all of your posts since Misbah took over and made Rizwan/Babar his two key players+openers. You had a different tune than what you are suggesting now

Our shortage of talent bailed us out in the World Cup and Asia cup every time the so called superstars failed or stayed long enough at the crease to fail
 
Apart from the so called unpredictability a few things which are exciting while watching a pak match are babar's drives, shaheen & naseem with new ball, shadab khan's 3d performances.

The rest are a bit flat. But one of the most irritating thing is rizwan's antics behind the wickets and how he always tries to stop the game while batting.

Shaheen and shadab back in the side should bring some excitement to the fans though.
 
Life is being sucked out due to the constant negative tactics and the enabling of Babar’s stat padding. Everything is geared towards Babar winning some Z-list award
 
Get a good and robust selection committee which works by actually watching players play rather than statsguru and things will change

See the solutions are there!

Knowing Pakistan, we will get there by accident than by design.

No need for gloom. A bad period - even in that Pakistan has won series, reached finals, beaten their arch rivals, put on some astonishing performances, unearthed talent and I hate this, but made friends.

2023 - time to win.
 
Social media indicates stats are valued more. Pakistan is missing X factors that they always had.
 
I think Babar is very good performer and we are lucky to have a player like him. Stat padding is open for all and if anyone else can do that he can do that as well.

It's just that we want swag like kohli and want decency like Babar together.. which is not possible. Babar has tame personality which reflects in his captaincy as well. He needs to be proactive. He can learn all captaincy traits but still he will be a defensive person by nature.

We can have Shadab or Shaheen as captain as well, they will excite the masses but still they dont play all matches.

Personally, I dont see anyone else as an option.

So, what are the options we have.

I guess a good aggressive coach be it National or international can do wonders for Pakistan with a mix of Babar/Rizwan as Captain. Personally, I find Rizwan more competitive and aggressive than Babar.

We, as a fan also needs to understand that we don't have players of international caliber. After Misbah's tenure, we are lucky to have Babar, Shaheen, Shadab, and Rizwan as our core. Then we have 2nd tier of players. Imam is very good with his mental ability as well but very limited player.

2nd tier players Nawaz, Iftikhar, Naseem and Rauf. Fakhar Zaman.

I believe haris sohail can easily fit in between the 1st and 2nd tier.

My two cents
 
Last edited:
Pakistan are now not even midtable side, they are bottom half side

Yes in most formats particularly Test cricket.

We are a decent T20I side but most teams in the world can say the same thing on any given day.
 
Bangladesh have beaten India at home in ODIs, South Africa have got one over England yesterday and clean sweeped India 3-0 in ODIs last year. Even Zimbabwe have beaten the likes of Bangladesh at home in T20 and ODI serves

Literally every team plays well at home except Pakistan. :facepalm: This has to be the most frustrating thing for the fans.
 
Common guys understand the fact that Babar is limited player ,he can't win you game single handedly, because he don't have 4th and 5th gear to accelerate.But he can play supporting role to build a partnership with other batsman. Someone like Fakhar or Imam can play around him and win Pakistan the matches. People should understand the importance of supporting role as well.
 
Common guys understand the fact that Babar is limited player ,he can't win you game single handedly, because he don't have 4th and 5th gear to accelerate.But he can play supporting role to build a partnership with other batsman. Someone like Fakhar or Imam can play around him and win Pakistan the matches. People should understand the importance of supporting role as well.

That's absolutely correct. This is exactly the reason I have never rated Babar in the same bracket as the likes if Inzamam Or M Yousuf. He is a very good player but when it comes to greatness we can't go by stats alone. Babar has zero X factor.

One simple way to gauge a players ability is the feeling you get when he is at the crease. I remember there was never a time when Inzamam Or Anwar or even Afridi were at the crease and you thought the game is over. With Babar many a times he is there till the end also but you simply know that he won't be able to win the game on his own.
 
What?

Pakistan reached final of last three multinational tournaments it took part in.

Test team may be worst ever but LO team is fine. 2 all time Pakistani LO greats (Bobby and Lala's Damad) in the team and exciting T20 bowling line up.

Pakistan cricket needs better management. It has all the ingredients for big home support and hype.
 
Last 8 T20Is:

Won 4
Lost 4 (including losses to Zimbabwe and Afghanistan)
 
Pakistan is an exciting team to watch in world events like world cups, CTs etc.
In bilateral series we have always been rubbish be it the Misbah era, Sarfraz era or Babar era.
 
Another byproduct of our poor results

WkKIDlU.png
 
I am not watching the tournament anymore. Dil uth gya hai

Eagerly waiting for this World Cup to end so that i can hear some good news about the cancer surgery Dr. Mohsin Naqvi is planning to undergo. Hopefully, the blunder of making Babar as Pakistan captain will be corrected.
 
Back
Top