Pakistan cricket
Hi guys my name is Faisal today I am taking about the Pakistan cricket Pakistan is a team which once had its dominance in the cricket world. Be it the 1992 World Cup or the 2009 T20 World Cup, this team has given us many historic matches. After Wasim, Waqar and Younis, we have seen many gifted players in the next generation as well. Now, whether it is Shaheen’s deadly bowling or Babar’s explosive batting, Pakistan has a lot of potential but these new stars fizzled out very soon. In 2024, they lost to a team like USA. In the 2024 World Cup, they were eliminated in the group stages. The worst thing is that despite being the defending champions, they did not even reach the knockouts of the 2025 Champions Trophy. The whole world was once afraid of them, while today Pakistan is making fun of cricket. Was there a wife who said ‘Bob will do it’ or was she not there? Forget about the rest, even their form players are their biggest critics passion for cricket can be gauged from the fact that cricket had actually reached this country even before it became a country because the first international match was played between Sindh and Australia in Karachi in 1935 After partition cricket became very popular in this nation and soon by 1952 Pakistan had also achieved the recognition of a test nation In the same year they played a series of five test matches against India Although India won the series but Pakistan achieved its first test win by defeating India in the second match of the series and in this way they officially annoyed Looking at the craze for this sport in Pakistan like in India, it would not be wrong to say that cricket is a religion and to make any sport popular, some influential figures are needed and the first captain of Pakistan team Abdul Hafeez Qadr emerged as such a father figure. He played against every test playing nation at that time and won as well. This includes the victory against England in 1954. Along with him, fast bowler Fazal Mahmood and batsman Hanif Mahmood were the special players of that era. Due to the hard work of these players, Pakistan cricket soon got more superstars who took this game to a new level and from here began the globalization of Pakistan cricket. By the 80s, Pakistan had become the best test team, a team which is perhaps the best team of theirs till date. If we talk about the stats that are counted at the top in cricketing history, then till 1979 they played 41 test matches in which they won only six and lost 12. Whereas between 1980 and 89 they played 21 test matches and won nine matches and lost only five. Their rising spirit can be gauged from the fact that even the most dominating team of that time, West Indies, failed to overcome them. In the 80s and early 90s, in the three series played between these two teams, the score ended in a draw every time. Meanwhile, Pakistan also achieved the number one rating in the test rankings, which was their biggest achievement till then. But there is no doubt that the biggest moment in Pakistan’s history came in 1992. After losing three of their first five matches, Pakistan made a comeback that no one had expected. Imran Khan’s inspiring captaincy And with a new spirit, the Corner Tigers defeated England and won their first and only World Cup title. And this was the time when Pakistan got cricket superstars in the proper sense. Fast bowlers, world class spinners, hard hitting all rounders and consistent batsmen. They had created a dream team that everyone was scared to face. Its main characters were Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi. Pakistan completely dominated the 90s and also won the Asia Cup in 2000. But good times don’t last forever
downfalls
the same happened with Pakistan. Before 1996, the win to loss ratio of the Pakistan team was less than 1.5 because they won 52 test matches and lost 33. But after 1996, till date, the win to loss ratio of Pakistan has been 1.5. 0.9 which means they have lost more matches. What happened to this team that they had to see such a There are four main reasons for this. First, controversies. In 1998, Pakistan Justice Malik Qayyum’s infamous report on corruption and spot fixing created a rift in the entire team. All the players left no stone unturned in blaming each other. Although only Salim Malik and Atul Rehman were found guilty, fingers were also pointed at players like Wasim Akram, Waqar, Younis, Syed Anwar. Then came the 2010 spot fixing scandal. Top players like Salman Bhatt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir got caught in it, which had a complete impact on the team. This scandal was not just a controversy, it was a cricketing disgrace which destroyed the credibility of Pakistan cricket in the world. Number two is the rise of terrorism. Fights between India and Pakistan keep on going on but there have been some incidents in which the entire country as well as cricket came under its grip. During the test match in Karachi in 2002, a violent incident took place outside the New Zealand team’s hotel.Then a bomb blast takes place which ends their tour right there. This was outside the hotel. In 2009, Sri Lankan team was on tour and bullets were fired on the bus. Luckily, the players were not hurt in this attack but Pakistan cricket had to bear the brunt of it. After this attack, all the teams refused to tour Pakistan and Pakistan remained deprived of cricket in its own country for many years. The third reason is bad management. A big reason for the downfall of Pakistan cricket has been the board’s instability and poor management. PCB is a politically driven organization, that is why many times the selectors are accused of favoritism, due to which Chief Selector Inzamam-ul-Haq was sacked in the middle of the 2023 World Cup. Not only this, Najam Sethi and Mickey Arthur were also sacked in the middle of the head coach appointments by sitting in an online zoom meeting. He was coaching the team since 2005 and then they change captains as if they are everyday clothes. In 2019, Sarfraz Ahmed was sacked at random. From 2021 to 23, Babar Azam was made the ODI and Test captain, then he was removed and then he was made the captain again. And finally in 2024, Shaheen Afridi was made the T-20 captain and then he was removed after one series. With such frequency of changes, both the confidence and trust of the team are lost. And despite all this, the biggest reason is the drop in performance. Everything started deteriorating from the beginning of 2000. In the 2003 World Cup, Pakistan was eliminated in the group stage itself, which happened for the first time after 1975. It was a warning sign but no lessons were learnt even after this. In the 2007 World Cup also, the team could not reach the knockouts. 2013 Champions Trophy In 2014 and 2016, Pakistan finished last in the group stage, which was another embarrassment. In the 2014 and 2016 T20 World Cups, the team could not go beyond the group stage, which was unacceptable for a team that was once considered the most dangerous in the T20 format. Then in the 2019 World Cup, people expected the team to make a comeback, but this too turned out to be a disaster. In the midst of all this, it was not as if Pakistan had completely failed in cricket. Despite so many things, Pakistan did get some happiness in between. One of them was the 2009 T20 World Cup win, the day when Pakistan became the world champion for the second time in its history. After losing to India by a very close margin in the 2007 World Cup, this time they did not let the trophy go from their hands. Right after this tournament, Pakistan once again became a champion. A strong team was beginning to appear and the main reason for this was excellent fast bowlers like Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir, but controversy did not leave Pakistan once again. Pakistani players were banned in IPL as well. Taking inspiration from IPL, Pakistan Super League was started. After conducting the first season in UAE, PSL was gradually shifted to Pakistan. Pakistan got a ray of hope due to more than 100 overseas players playing in PSL. Due to this, Sri Lanka also agreed for a full tour in 2019. Since then, cricket in Pakistan was once again on the path of becoming normal. With the start of PSL, Pakistan got talented players like Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Shaddad Khan. Before the 2017 Champions Trophy, an inexperienced but confident team was formed by combining all these players. Under the leadership of Sarfraz, everyone was made to play. Pakistan won the 2017 Champions Trophy. Under Sarfaraz’s captaincy, the team started to regain its lost identity and thus they achieved the number one ranking in ODI, Test and T-20. Now when it seemed that Pakistan’s car could come back on track, once again Pakistan’s politics pushed cricket to the backseat. The Worst In 2019, suddenly Rameez Raja is made the new chairman of PCB. After this, Sarfaraz Khan’s captaincy is taken away due to not qualifying for the 2019 World Cup semi-finals and Babar Azam is made the next captain of the team. Now whether Babar Azam’s personal stats are excellent or not, he has also won many series against smaller teams, but he could not do much in ICC tournaments. Yes, in the 2021 T-20 World Cup, Babar Azam became the first Pakistani captain to defeat India. They have never been defeated in any ICC World Cup, but in the semi-finals they too were seen kneeling down in front of Australia. In the 2022 T-20 World Cup too, Babar Azam, who made his way to the final, lost to England again. After this, in the 2023ODI World Cup, Pakistan was eliminated from the group stages in the 2025 Champions Trophy too. This is shameful because they are not only the first but also the defending champions. In the last five matches, all Pakistani bowlers together have taken only 24 wickets, that too at an average of 60. The most shocking thing is that among the 14 teams playing ODIs this year, Pakistan has the second worst bowling average, behind only Oman. And if a team like USA is also involved then it is clear that this was not just a tournament defeat, this is the official downfall of Pakistan cricket. There is no reason for this, Pakistan is full of talent but will the management be able to solve this issue, will Pakistan dominate cricket once again or will it become their property, only time will tell