The disastrous showing in the 2023 Asia Cup, followed by the failure to qualify for the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup, then a group-stage exit in this year’s T20 World Cup — Pakistan cricket was engulfed in one embarrassment after another.

Now, all of the above seem to have culminated in an even bigger humiliation for Pakistan as they suffered their first-ever Test defeat at home to Bangladesh, a team with a poor record in overseas Tests and not considered among the strong sides.

The longest format has been a struggle for Pakistan ever since the retirements of Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and the like. But over the past two years, in particular, their performance has steadily plummeted across all formats. They did finish runners-up in the 2022 T20 World Cup, but only after a huge favour from South Africa as they lost to the Netherlands in the group stage. Else, following defeats to India and minnows Zimbabwe, Pakistan would not even have made the semi-finals in that edition of the T20 Cup.

But then, what exactly is the reason behind such calamitous defeats which seem to have become a regular affair of Pakistan cricket?

“Pakistan me badkismati se iss kism ke administrators aaye hain aur Board jinke hawaale kiya ja raha hai, unko cricket ki A, B, C, D tak nahi pataa (In Pakistan, unfortunately, the kind of administrators who have been in and given the charge of the Board don’t even know the basics of cricket),” Khalid Mahmood, former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, told The Telegraph from Lahore on Monday.

“In our country’s cricket Board, there are far too many people... Actually more than what’s required. And those people have no knowledge other than using their political positions and powers. Owing to the bickering among them, the organisational structure (of the Board) is also weakening. Those people neither act themselves nor let others do what’s needful,” a disgusted Mahmood, who was at the helm of PCB during 1998-99, said.

“For the last two-three years, there have been frequent changes in the top hierarchy of the PCB. Due to that, the Board operations department got confused and couldn’t work properly,” said former Pakistan manager and selector Haroon Rasheed.

“Also, when you prepare the fixtures, you need to keep in mind whether the team is playing after the off-season because if that is so, then your players have not had enough practice. That aside, there have been so many chopping and changing in the coaching set-up and captaincy. Gary Kirsten joined the team 10 days before the (T20) World Cup. When Babar (Azam) was the captain, (current Test captain) Shan Masood wasn’t even in the team. So, all of these got jumbled up and affected
the team’s performance,” Rasheed explained.

The current condition of club and domestic cricket is another reason why success in multi-team tournaments has eluded Pakistan, former PCB chief Mahmood stated.

According to PCB insiders, the current Board’s hesitation in drafting the promising Pakistan ‘A’ youngsters into the senior team is also a cause of such poor results. “When the tried and tested are failing continuously, you should focus on the Pakistan Shaheens. It’s high time the risk is taken before it gets too late,” said one insider.