It’s completely fair to feel disappointed with where Pakistan cricket stands today but it’s also important to reflect honestly on how you got there.
Many on this forum had previously hinted that 2009 T20 World Cup and the 2017 Champions Trophy victories, while iconic and emotionally uplifting might have just served the purpose of masking the deeper structural flaws in Pakistan cricket.
Those wins created a kind of illusion that Pakistan was still a major force in world cricket when in reality they were rarely operating as a consistent Top 3 or Top 4 side across formats. Instead of those moments being launchpads for sustained growth, they became comfort zones for the board and the fan groups here that allowed complacency and grand delusions to creep in.
Contrast that with a team like South Africa. Despite not winning a global ICC trophy in the last 20 years, they’ve been a steady and competitive presence in world cricket. Their infrastructure, fitness standards, competitive spirit have kept them relevant in all formats even without the silverware. In many ways, they represent the opposite of Pakistan, a system that emphasizes long-term stability over sporadic brilliances. While Pakistani fans hyped Amir’s 4 overs spell in 2017 to the moon, the South Africans quietly added Steyn and Rabada into GOAT conversation without much noise.
Cricket, unlike many other global sports. has a relatively small pool of elite teams, maybe 7 or 8 serious contenders in total. That makes ICC tournament formats a bit of a lottery to be honest. A team ranked 5th to 8th can with just a few good performances walk away with a world title. That’s not to diminish the achievement but it’s an inherent nature of such tournaments. A team with 50 wins from 70 matches during 4 years might walk out of the tournament empty handed and a team with 20 wins from 70 matches during the same timeframe might walk away with the cup in its hands by playing few weeks of good cricket and handling the pressure better.
So when we look at Pakistan’s two trophies in the last 15 years, they seem like high points but not necessarily reflections of consistent excellence. Meanwhile, teams like New Zealand and South Africa, despite having fewer trophies in the same period, are seen as healthier cricketing nations because of their consistency, structure, and player development pipelines.
Look at India as well. They went a full decade without an ICC trophy, yet their win/loss ratios, away performances, squad depth, and domestic cricket structure arguably hit their highest standards during that time. That’s the kind of excellence fans should be demanding not just the thrill of a one-off tournament win every 10 years.
For Pakistan to truly rise, fans and administrators alike need to shift focus from nostalgia and isolated moments of glory to building systems that produce world-class results year in, year out. That means stable management, long-term planning, investment in domestic cricket, and above all, a demand for consistency not just heroics.
Only then will Pakistan stop being a team that surprises once in a while and start being one that commands respect every day.
- 674 posts until retirement
