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Pakistan cricket in turmoil after disastrous Champions Trophy defence – Firstpost

March 8, 2025
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The spotlight isn’t just on the Mohammad Rizwan-led Pakistan cricket team for the underwhelming defence of their Champions Trophy title. Former cricketers, many of whom are legends of the game, are also having a go at one another, further highlighting the mess in Pakistani cricket.

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The Pakistan cricket team had undergone another captaincy and coach change in the latter half of 2024 following a series of disastrous results, including and especially in the T20 World Cup.
Mohammad Rizwan succeeded Babar Azam as the white-ball captain while former pacer Aaqib Javed took over as head coach after Jason Gillespie and Gary Kirsten failed to last a year in the role in Tests and limited-overs cricket respectively.

The changes initially worked in the team’s favour as Rizwan and Co pulled off a
historic 3-0 whitewash in their recent tour of South Africa. The clean sweep, a first for South Africa in the 50-over format in its own backyard, had filled the Pakistani cricket community with hope of pulling off something special in the Champions Trophy.

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A little over two months later, things would go back to square one for the Pakistan cricket team. After failing to win the ODI tri-series at home featuring New Zealand and South Africa, the ‘Men in Green’ suffered a humiliating first-round exit from the ICC Champions Trophy, leading to a
torrent of criticism from former cricketers and abuse from fans and online trolls.

Rizwan and Co’s title defence on home soil would conclude with an embarrassing first-round exit following back-to-back defeats against New Zealand and India. What made things worse for them was the fact that they signed off without a victory after their final Group A match against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi was washed out without a ball bowled.

Champions Trophy leaves Pakistani cricket more divided than ever

Pakistan hasn’t been consistent with its performances in recent years, exhibiting flashes of brilliance but failing to deliver more often than not. Things have only gone from bad to worse for the team since their runner-up finish in the 2022 T20 World Cup, with the team failing to reach the semi-finals of the 2023 ICC World Cup and suffering a first-round exit from last year’s T20 World Cup.

What makes the Champions Trophy campaign stand out, however, is the fact that it isn’t just members of the cricket team that are in the spotlight. With greats of the game fighting amongst themselves

Cricket in Pakistan has been going through a freefall for more than a year now – the 3-0 sweep of the ODI series in South Africa being an exception more than anything else.

What exacerbated their problems was the myriad of issues that the Pakistan Cricket Board had been facing in the build-up to the Champions Trophy, particularly with construction work at its venues for the tournament, particularly Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium and Karachi’s National Stadium. The performance of the national team did not help either.

Pakistan cricket greats fight among themselves after Champions Trophy debacle

And now, fans are witnessing yesteryear greats have a go at one another, almost as if the very people who brought them so much joy in the 1990s and the 2000s and were idols for millions are now themselves contributing to the mess that Pakistani cricket finds itself in.

Former Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez, for one, had
recently slammed the ’90s stars in a show in which he happened to be a panelist alongside pace legend Shoaib Akhtar, at a time when several players from that generation were openly criticising the current team.

Hafeez criticising that star-studded generation – which comprises the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar among others – isn’t anything new. He has discussed issues that plagued Pakistani cricket in the 1990s including fights, match-fixing and other controversies in other shows and podcasts.

Hafeez has found support from his former teammate Mohammad Amir, who accused the legends of the 90s of favouring players of their choice as selectors and said that, as experts, they should come forward and give solutions instead of making fun of the current situation.

Amir’s comments on the show Hasna Mana Hain appeared as another dig at Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who have been appearing on the DP World Dressing Room show and have been quite critical of the current Pakistan cricket team.

Former captain
Rashid Latif backed Hafeez’s views of the generation that he was part of himself, labelling Wasim and Waqar as ‘Dubai boys’ and advising ’90s players to stay away from the team management as well as the board in order to let Pakistani cricket prosper.

Pace legend Waqar, who had multiple stints as Pakistan head coach after his retirement, responded to Hafeez and Latif’s criticism with a post on X captioned “90’s KA LONDA” that was followed by his combined statistics with Wasim – amounting to a mindblowing 1,705 wickets.

At the same time, there have also been posts on social media in favour of Wasim, Waqar and the rest of that generation, with one post recounting their incredible feats – which included a Test win in Australia and Test series wins in consecutive tours of England.

“This too shall pass. Stay strong,” wrote Babar in a post on X in support of Virat Kohli, who had been going through an extended lean phase in which he had not scored a century for nearly three years.

Maybe someone needs to send the current Pakistan team as well as their supporters, and even former cricketers the same. The upcoming tour of New Zealand might just provide them the fresh start that they so desperately need.

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