Politics in sport hurt Pak Cricket

The Men in Green last week fell to eighth, their worst Test ranking in nearly six decades

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan's dire recent performances in international cricket have sparked debate over the invasion of politics in sport, with claims nepotism at the top is sabotaging success on the field.

Pakistan last week fell to eighth, their worst Test ranking in nearly six decades, after a shock 2-0 home series defeat to Bangladesh.

It was the 10th winless home Test in a row for the cricket-crazy country and came after humiliating early exits from both the 50-over and T20 World Cups in the past year. The current Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman is Mohsin Naqvi, who has a second full-time job as interior minister in a nation grappling with a surge in militant attacks.

In the past two years Pakistan cricket has ploughed through four coaches, three board heads, three captains and numerous formats of the domestic competition -- instability experts say rides on the whims of politicians.

"This has a knock-on effect on team performance," said cricket journalist and former PCB media manager Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi.

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

Cricket is by far Pakistan's most popular sport with players celebrated as national heroes, endorsed by top brands and streets emptied during major events.

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, claiming Naqvi had "annihilated" the team.

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

Nepotism and patronage are endemic 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.

Their last notable performance saw them reach the T20 World Cup final in 2022. However in the 2024 event they exited in the first round after shock losses to the United States and Ireland.

The defeat to Bangladesh has seen Naqvi -- and the system installing him -- come under increased scrutiny in parliament and in the press, with calls for his resignation.

"Since 1998, hand-picked favourites of the respective ruling regimes in the country have taken turns as PCB chairmen to run the game in their own clueless manner, only to ruin it," the Express Tribune said.

"They are busy working on their own respective agendas, which primarily relate to saving their own skin and seat, or making good money at the expense of the country's cricket."

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."