Pakistan cricket team find themselves in dire straits once again, as their never-ending musical chairs continues. With just four months left for Champions Trophy 2025, the team finds themselves with a new captain and a new coach yet again. While Mohammad Rizwan has named the new ODI and T20I captain while Jason Gillespie has been named the stand-in coach after Gary Kirsten followed Babar Azam’s suit and resigned.
However, a new captain and a new coach is the least of the problems for Pakistan cricket which has been plagued by issues which seems to have become chronic in nature. The politics between the PCB, players, coaches, the selection committee and the support staff has become murkier with each passing year and there seems to be no stopping it.
Tracing the Pakistan cricket ‘circus’ timeline
Pakistan are set to lock horns with Australia in the 1st ODI on November 4. The last time Pakistan played a one-day international was in the ODI World Cup on November 11, 2023 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata where they ended up losing. For nearly 12 months since then, the side hasn’t played a single 50-over game. What makes matters worse is now the team has 11 ODIs on the trot leading up to the Champions Trophy 2025 in November.
Musical chairs ft. Pakistan captain and coaches
- November 2023 – Babar Azam resigns as white-ball captain
- November 2023- Shaheen Afridi named new white-ball skipper
- March 2024 – Shaheen Afridi sacked after leading in just one series
- April 2024 – Babar Azam reinstated as white-ball skipper
- May 2024 – Gary Kirsten named new white-ball coach
- September 2024 – Babar Azam resigns after T20 World Cup
- October 2024 – Gary Kirsten resigned as coach
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Babar Azam’s flop-filled captaincy stint
Babar Azam first stepped down as the white-ball captain after the team’s exit from the ODI World Cup. Pakistan, who weren’t scheduled to play an ODI for nearly a year, decided to experiment by appointing Shaheen Shah Afridi as the new T20I skipper. However, Afridi was replaced with Babar Azam after leading the team only in one series (against NZ).
Azam returned to lead the side in the T20 World Cup, only to resign two months later after being knocked out. He cited ‘significant workload’. However, that was just all, given all the reports that did the rounds about how the star felt distanced from his teammates and differences of opinions in the dressing room.
Now, the PCB has decided to appoint Mohammad Rizwan as the full-time white-ball captain and Salman Ali Agha as his deputy.
Gary Kirsten falls victim to Pakistan cricket’s politics
Prior to Gary Kirsten’s arrival in May 2024, Pakistan cricket team had roped in many of their former cricketers to coach the side in various capacities. It included Azhar Mahmood as the interim coach. However, the PCB wanted an experienced coach to be a part of the side for the T20 World Cup. And so they roped in the South African.
However, Kirsten’s coaching career got off to an awful start with Pakistan crashing out of the T20 World Cup in the group stage. He flew back to Pakistan, submitted an extensive report on the team’s performance and problems, even went on to scout for talent in the domestic circuit. All of this done only for the PCB to sideline him from making decisions.
The PCB decided to hand over full authority to the revamped selection committee led by Aaqib Javed. The move was taken after the loss in PAK vs ENG 1st Test. While Kirsten had nothing to do with red-ball cricket, there was ongoing discussions about the new white-ball skipper and the squad for PAK vs AUS series. Now here’s where Kirsten and the board clashed. The two parties reportedly had heated discussions which eventually led to Gary Kirsten resigning ultimately.
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