Team Pakistan was not defeated but destroyed and routed by India last week, razing hopes of millions of Pakistanis back home. The commentators and the analysts were praising Rohit Sharma for his excellent captaincy and bowling of Jasprit Bumrah and spinners which caused the defeat of Pakistan. Notwithstanding the merit of their captaincy and bowling prowess, in fact we presented the match to them on a silver platter. It was more of our weakness in leadership and dismal performance of “friends eleven” which brought this abject surrender rather than their extraordinary captainship or players’ skills. The dismal and shocking end of Asia Cup with pathetic performance against archrivals India had earlier given rise to grave concerns about the future of cricket in Pakistan.

In a situation where friendships, nepotism and parochialism are the name of the game, we will keep coming across such miserable performances and shocking results because the team is in fact a ‘friends eleven’ rather than a national cricket team. The frequent changings of Chairman PCB have further exacerbated with lightning speed the breakdown of systems in Pakistan cricket.

The debacle in cricket, in spite of having some real good talent in batting and bowling, started way back through a well hatched conspiracy. Babar was launched as a captain and Rizwan as wicketkeeper in a single move to dislodge a most successful captain and wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed, who gave us the Champions Trophy title in 2017 with a new-look team on seam-friendly greentops in England against some of the strongest teams of the world. He had consecutive wins in eleven T20 series, winning 29 out of 37 T20 matches. Younis Khan had also met the same fate after the T20 World Cup win in 2009.

Appointment of Babar was part of a sinister design under the clear directions of the then myopic patron of PCB and Prime Minister. He also simultaneously destroyed cricket nursery in Pakistan in the form of departmental teams that were banned and entire Pakistan was reduced to six teams in first-class cricket.

With PCB having billions in its coffers, many well connected gentlemen lobby politically to head PCB but they have neither thorough knowledge of the game nor administrative expertise and capabilities. There have been four frequent changes from Ehsan Mani to Zaka Ashraf in five years.

In fact both Babar and Rizwan are very good batsmen but Babar is a clueless, weak captain with no on spot thinking abilities. Under the circumstances both Babar and Rizwan have become most controversial because of their whole and sole control on team selection, management, planning and execution due to successive weak chairmen. Their unholy nexus with assistance of Shadab Khan and Shaheen Afridi has resulted in selection of undeserving and continuously failing players like Salman Agha, Haris, and Wasim Junior ignoring talents like Amir, Imad Waseem, Abrar, Sohaib Maqsood and Sarfaraz.

Excellent batters like Saud Shakeel even when selected are seldom given a chance to play. The hegemony of Babar and Rizwan is busy selecting friends and ignoring those who deserve selection on merit. This hold cannot be broken till a strong head of PCB is appointed who has guts to check their activities. As a smart move while selecting the T20 World Cup team, they got the team announced before the conclusion of the T20 National Championship. Similarly it seems chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq just announced the team penned down by Babar and Rizwan.

All this is enhanced by a clueless, defensive and weak captain Babar Azam who is the major reason for successive failures in two Asia Cups and T20 World Cup in the past. Under his captaincy there is virtually no discipline on the field because Babar is dominated by Rizwan, Shadab and Shaheen Shah Afridi. Field set by Babar is often changed by Rizwan from behind the stamps but Babar stays silent. Similarly Shadab and Shaheen continuously interfere with bowlers and keep giving them unsolicited advice resulting in total confusion.

The chief coach and his associates seem to have no role at all and are there as silent observers while the chief selector who has no role in coaching is at the nets coaching the players. There is no regular off spinner for left handed batsmen of opposite teams. Iftikhar with round arm action is an apology for a spinner and hardly worth counting. He may take a wicket or two by fluke but is not dependable. A sound advice would be to give Mickey Arthur full powers as chief coach/director along with bringing back Sarfaraz as captain. Babar and Rizwan being good batsmen can be retained as such with the addition of Amir, Imad, Sohaib and Abrar.

Our spinners have been failing in the middle overs with Shadab Khan in absolutely poor form for a long period of time. However, instead of giving chances to other good spinners like Imad Wasim, Usama Mir and Abrar the management persisted with Shadab purely on the basis of his friendship with Babar.

Unless the idiosyncrasies, preferences and prejudices are removed, and a person with impeccable integrity equipped with knowledge of the game and strong administrative skills is appointed at the helm of affairs nothing will improve; an immediate action is needed after the world cup to stop further damage. Babar needs to be removed as captain after this World cup. Appointment of Shaheen or Rizwan as captain will further deteriorate the situation because “friends eleven” will continue to thrive and be selected. The arguments that Shaheen has exhibited leadership qualities in PSL is fallacious. It should be understood once and for all that a great player may not be a great captain to lead. As they say an army of sheep led by a lion is sure to win but an army of lions led by a sheep will definitely fail.

– The writer is a former first-class cricketer, former convener PCB Adhoc Committee and former Inspector General of Police