Knocked out

The humiliating and disheartening exit of the Pakistan cricket team from the group stage in the T20 World Cup 2024 is a grim reminder that the politicization of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has fractured the entire system and rendered the team dysfunctional. Apart from the abysmal performance of the players, an uncertain atmosphere in the PCB has equally contributed to its decline. There seems to be a game of thrones going on at the top as every political party steps in to impose its man as PCB chairman. In the last three years, we have had four different chairmen in the PCB.

This instability has badly impacted the Pakistan cricket team, which is evident from its performance in the last two to three years. In this short period, we have lost to low-ranked teams such as Zimbabwe in the T20 World Cup 2022, Afghanistan in the ODI World Cup 2023, Ireland in a bilateral series, and now to the USA in the current T20 World Cup 2024, contributing to our early exit. We must learn from and rectify our earlier mistakes so that we can get back on the path to glory.

Kaleem Kavish

Chitral