The ex-chairman of the PCB, Najam Sethi, has, indirectly, pointed out the former Prime Minister Imran Khan for causing the downfall of cricket in Pakistan.
Sethi, who served the PCB from December 2022 to June 2023, lamented in a post on X that a country has a right to be so angry considering how the national team performed: Champions Trophy 2025 hosts Pakistan bow out of the competition after back-to-back defeats.
“The cricket fraternity says Pakistan has hit rock bottom. How come a cricket team that was once no 1 in T20s (2018) and Tests (2016) and ODIs (1990 and 1996), which won the WC in 1992 and CT in 2017, is today equated with Zimbabwe?”
Sethi said that the downfall started in 2019 when a new management under a new PM/Patron (Imran Khan was prime minister at that time and had brought in Ehsan Mani as PCB chairman) changed the domestic cricket structure that had served Pakistan reasonably well for decades and replaced it with an ill-suited Australian hybrid model.
“The normal continued to be political interference; contradictory PCB policies ruled the roost— foreign coaches were employed and sent packing, selectors were whimsically recruited, old ones were brought back to mentor and manage.
“At last, player power, clash of captain egos and factionalism in the team began to dominate over fumbling management! Before us is the horrible consequence,” wrote Sethi.
If those involved understand the kind of brainstorming required to pinpoint the problems affecting the sustainability of cricket in Pakistan and are willing to commit their integrity, experience, knowledge, and professionalism to the task, Sethi said, it can certainly be done again.
He left the PCB soon after Imran transformed into PM.
This paved the way for Ehsan Mani’s appointment, with the former ICC president having resigned from an earlier basketball federation post to accommodate the appointment.
Sethi stepped down from the PCB soon after Imran became PM.
In 2019, the PCB had completely re-adjusted the domestic cricket structure as per Imran’s directives, ending the previous system of 16-18 departmental and regional association clubs competing in domestic matches and the establishment of a six-team first-class system.
When Mani excused himself from extension to the contract, Imran later appointed Ramiz Raja as chairman in 2021. Ramiz was replaced in December 2022 after the fall of the Imran Khan government by Sethi.
