1992 will be forever carved in the minds of Pakistani cricket followers as the year their team won the World Cup under the captaincy of Imran Khan. It made the whole country proud, and the parade to celebrate the team’s victory saw millions on the street. But the success in Australia and New Zealand was the culmination of the golden era for Pakistan cricket. Grievingly, it would only be downhill from that World Cup. Success progressively turned to failure for PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) and the national team.
Immediately after the World Cup would bring some successes for cricket in Pakistan. In addition, many more legends of the game would emerge in this same short span of time, such as Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Inzamam-ul-Haq. But even then, we could see cracks developing in the surface. Of course, only a few months after the World Cup, the PCB structure demonstrated no understanding of sporting success and had little vision for cricket in Pakistan.
The evidence of this lack of long-term vision and due diligence could be observed in absent infrastructure for cricket and the failure to produce emerging potential talent. They laid the seeds for failure to come.
One of the main reasons why Pakistan cricket fell into such a state was due to the indecisiveness and instability at the helm of the team. Between 1992 and 1999, Pakistan had seven different captains, with varying degrees of success. The constant churn at the top caused interruptions to the team’s continuity and cohesion. Another problem was with the PCB’s tendency to make appointments based on politics instead of merit.
Steady Decline of Pakistan Cricket:
Pakistan’s on-field performances have steadily declined. The exit in the 1996 World Cup in which they were knocked out in the quarterfinals was a wakeup call. The PCB failed to address it, and the situation continued to deteriorate further. The 1999 World Cup in which Pakistan lost in a critical group match against Australia was another nadir.
The PCB’s incompetence reared its head again in the early 2000s and perhaps the most glaring incompetence came when it hired Javed Miandad as teams coach. Miandad was highly criticized for being a valid candidate. The development also brought about distractions and power struggles which often impacted the team’s performance. Moin Khan was the captain in the first of Miandad’s two terms as coach and their relationship was deeply strained. The saga ultimately culminated in Pakistan leaving the 2003 World Cup early, highlighting the extent of the malaise.
In 2010, the spotlight of Corruption turned towards three players, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir, leaving Pakistan Cricket in a further body blow due to numerous bans and repeated explanations of poor processes. The depth of corruption that was uncovered at this time illustrated the PCB’s continuous inability to directly address the issues taking place.
Over the last ten years, the PCB’s initiatives in reform and restructuring Pakistan cricket have had mixed results. The team’s performance in international cricket has remained erratic, and the PCB’s own controversies have continued. The PCB’s decisions to appoint coaches and selectors based on favoritism rather than merit, lead to erratic performances by the team.
Limited infrastructure and promotion of grass-roots cricket for young players has also been another reason for Pakistan cricket’s decline. While Pakistan have developed several stars, such as Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, and Misbah-ul-Haq, they have not had sufficient depth or bench strength in their performances as a team. The PCB has failed to invest in cricketing infrastructure and also faded in respect to advancing cricket at the grass-roots levels, so Pakistan cricket is still dependent on individual brilliance and talent rather than a solid system.
Pakistan cricket is trendy; we have seen occasional bursts of excitement in Pakistan cricket in recent years. Recall Pakistan’s victory in the 2009 T20 World Cup, performance in bilateral series, and now people are talking the revival of Pakistan cricket! Is it really a revival? A revival suggests a previous, successful state or development over time, but cricket administrator behavior is destructive to success. Prior failures suggest that Pakistan cricket is a worthwhile construction, and work in progress, but not fully established, as it continues struggling.
The deterioration of Pakistan cricket, and the PCB, post-1992 world cup is unfortunate, and an excellent lesson of how arrogance, ineptitude, and corruption can erode a sports institution. Although the PCB has least developed capacity for team selection and capacity for leading cricket’s back office with numerous leaders since 1992’s Pakistan World Cup victory with only to cling on hope and poor infrastructure, youth development, internal administration stability, doing politics versus merit. Leaders must not manage cricket with politics but seek sound administration learning from previous business success after bringing stability to PCB if Pakistan cricket is to be successful, and akin to the glory of 1992.
The BCCI’s position of not playing against Pakistan in bilateral series is not new but the Pahalgam attack on April 22, 2025, appears to have solidified its position. BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla stated that, India will continue to follow the government constraints in relation to cricket with Pakistan.
Here is what we have at the moment:
– BCCI’s Stance: Rajeev Shukla indicated that India won’t play bilateral series as well as ICC tournaments against Pakistan, and has proposed that both Asian giants should not be kept in the same group in ICC events, following the pahalgam attack by the terrorists
– ICC Events: India played Pakistan as recently as 2023, in the ODI World Cup as Pakistan came to India. However, India just refused to travel to Pakistan for the 2025 Champions Trophy; they played all their matches in Dubai including the final against the New Zealand resulting in a not so fruitful tournament for ICC.