Politics and nepotism have left Pakistan cricket in disarray, analysts say

Shock 2-0 home series defeat to Bangladesh saw team plummet to eighth in the Test rankings – their worst in nearly 60 years

Support for Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, also the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board, appears to be waning. EPA

The recent dire performances of Pakistan's cricket team have sparked debate in the country over whether politics plays too big a role in the sport, with claims nepotism at the top is sabotaging success on the field.

A shock 2-0 home series defeat to Bangladesh saw Pakistan plummet to eighth in the Test rankings – their worst in nearly 60 years.

It extended a run of 10 consecutive Tests at home without a win and comes off the back of humiliating early exits from both the 50-over and T20 World Cups over the past year.

The team looks in disarray with many critics pointing to instability at the top as the reason for Pakistan's decline.

Over the past two years, the team has made its way through four coaches, three board heads, three captains and numerous revamps of the domestic competition – instability experts say rides on the whims of politicians.

The role of current Pakistan Cricket Board chairman is Mohsin Naqvi, who has a second full-time job as Interior Minister in a nation grappling with a surge in militant attacks, is increasingly under attack.

The incongruity of Naqvi's twin appointments was highlighted when he hosted a recent press conference discussing both a mass-casualty militant attack and the game of cricket.

Rana Sanaullah Khan, a close aide to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, appeared this week to hint support for the PCB chief was waning at the top.

"It is his choice" whether to continue, he told local news channel ARY. "These two jobs are full-time roles."

Cricket journalist and former PCB media manager Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi said the malaise was having a knock-on effect on the players.

Star batsman Babar Azam looks a shell of his former self and is yet to score a 50 in his last 18 innings while misfiring fast bowler Shaheen Afridi was dropped for the second Test against Bangladesh following a string of disappointing performances where he has looked well off the pace.

"When we have chaos and chronic instability within the management of the board it will reflect on-field performances," Nagi told AFP.

Cricket is by far Pakistan's most popular sport with players celebrated as national heroes.

The sport cuts across all divides in society, giving the game enormous cultural and political cachet in the nation of over 240 million.

Former prime minister Imran Khan launched his political career off his success as an international player, after captaining the team to victory in the 1992 ODI World Cup.

He served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022 but is currently jailed on charges he claims were manufactured to prevent him contesting elections earlier this year.

This week he issued a statement from jail recording a litany of complaints about his detention and describing the ills of cricket as a result of the same political machinations he says are hindering him.

"Favourites have been imposed to run a technical sport like cricket. What are Mohsin Naqvi's qualifications?" he asked.

"Nations are destroyed when corrupt and incompetent people are placed into positions of power in state institutions," he claimed.

Nepotism and patronage are nothing new in Pakistan. Khan campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket but then rose to power with the help of the powerful military establishment, analysts say.

The national team's downward spiral also overlapped with the former superstar's time in office, when he selected his own favoured PCB chief and intervened in the game's domestic format as well.

Najam Sethi, a journalist selected three times to run the PCB, said the role had become a "sinecure" designed to burnish reputations.

"Generals, judges and bureaucrats, just for a love of the game – but no knowledge of the game – have been appointed," he said.

"Also, the cricketers with knowledge of the game but no managerial experience have been appointed."

Pakistan's last major triumph was the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. They have not won a Test match at home since February 2021.