Being a fan of Pakistan cricket right now feels like watching a ship steadily taking on water. In the last 19 Test matches, the national side has lost 14, a slump that was starkly highlighted by the recent three‑day demolition at Headingley, where England piled on an innings and 103 runs to claim a crushing opening‑series victory.
The English bowlers were relentless, the batsmen clinical, and the fielding razor‑sharp – a perfect storm that left Pakistan looking helpless. Ahead of the second Test at Lord's, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Cricket (the broadcast starts at 10 am GMT, with the first ball at 11 am), the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast welcomed Osman Samiuddin – a senior editor at Cricinfo and a long‑time analyst of Pakistani cricket – to dissect what has gone so badly wrong. Samiuddin warned that the game in Pakistan has reached an "alarm‑bells" stage, with supporters increasingly frustrated not only by the on‑field results but also by the way the sport is administered. Samiuddin began by addressing the chaotic domestic structure that has plagued Pakistan for half a century.
He explained that the country has been caught in a perpetual tug‑of‑war between departmental teams (sponsored by government bodies or corporations) and regional sides. "Whatever system you finally settle on, you need to stick with it for a decade or more," he said.
Instead, Pakistan has been tinkering with its first‑class framework almost every season since the inaugural competition in 1953. The constant reshuffling has robbed the game of any real stability.
In 2019‑20 the board slashed the number of first‑class teams from 16 to six, only to expand again to 16 with four separate first‑class tournaments and three white‑ball competitions. That abrupt reduction wiped out roughly half of the country's professional cricketers overnight. "There were stories of players suddenly becoming taxi drivers because they lost their contracts," Samiuddin recalled.
The talent pool was instantly thinned, and the quality of domestic cricket – the breeding ground for future internationals – suffered dramatically. He also highlighted the logistical nightmare for batsmen like Abdullah Shafique and Imam‑ul‑Haq, who now have to hone their skills on just four or five venues instead of the historic spread of sixteen grounds.
"How can a batter learn to adapt to varied conditions when you’re only playing on a handful of pitches?" he asked. This lack of exposure to diverse surfaces hampers the development of technique and temperament, which are essential for success at the Test level. Another structural flaw, according to Samiuddin, is the scarcity of Test matches. Pakistan has not played a double‑digit number of Tests in a calendar year since 2017.
By contrast, only a few other nations – Sri Lanka (four), Ireland (three) and Afghanistan (two) – have scheduled fewer than five Tests in 2025. The PCB has pencilled in nine Tests for 2026, but the current deficit has left players without enough high‑quality, long‑form experience to sharpen their skills.
Leadership instability compounds the problem. Since 2021, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has cycled through four chairmen – Ramiz Raja, Najam Sethi, Zaka Ashraf and now Mohsin Naqvi – each bringing a different vision and varying degrees of involvement.
Naqvi, who also serves as the country’s interior minister, juggles demanding governmental duties with cricket administration. "You have to wonder how much time he can realistically devote to the sport," Samiuddin mused.
The impact of this administrative turbulence is evident in the careers of Pakistan’s most promising fast bowlers. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Babar Azam, Abdullah Shafique and Naseem Shah all burst onto the scene with great fanfare, yet many have struggled to maintain momentum.
Samiuddin argued that mismanagement, especially regarding injury rehabilitation and player development, has stalled their progress. Shaheen, for instance, has featured in only nine of the last 27 Tests after a knee injury sustained while fielding in Sri Lanka in 2022. The recovery process was reportedly rushed, and he has not played a first‑class match in three years – a worrying sign for a pace bowler who needs regular competitive bowling to rebuild strength.
Naseem Shah, another bright star, has not featured in a Test since December 2024, despite his evident talent. Frequent changes in coaching staff have added to the confusion. Players often do not know who their head coach or bowling coach is at any given time, leading to inconsistent training regimes and a lack of continuity in skill development.
This instability erodes confidence and hampers performance at the highest level. Samiuddin warned that the waste of talent in Pakistan has accelerated in the past five or six years. While some degree of inefficiency is inevitable in any sporting system, the current rate of loss is alarming. Talented individuals are either dropped without clear justification – as happened with Shaheen and Naseem, who were omitted from the recent Test squad – or they abandon the game due to uncertainty about their future.
The fan reaction mirrors these concerns. At Headingley, the Pakistani contingent was noticeably thin, and the atmosphere reflected a growing impatience with the board’s governance. "Fans are not angry at the players per se; they are fed up with how cricket is being run," Samiuddin said. He believes that while supporters may still attend matches at iconic venues like Lord's, their numbers are dwindling.
If the current trajectory continues, he fears Pakistani cricket could follow a fate similar to that of field hockey in the country or West Indies cricket, where administrative woes have crippled the sport’s once‑glorious standing. In summary, the crisis facing Pakistan cricket is multi‑faceted: an ever‑shifting domestic structure, insufficient Test exposure, leadership turnover, inadequate player management, and a disconnect with the fan base. Addressing these issues will require a long‑term, consistent strategy – one that stabilises the domestic framework, invests in player welfare, ensures regular high‑level competition, and restores trust among supporters.
Only then can the alarm bells finally be silenced and Pakistan return to its rightful place among the elite of world cricket.