From Imran to England disaster: How Pakistan cricket hit rock bottom

Pakistan cricket’s decline reached a dramatic point in England, where the board sent seven players home and dismissed the head coach during a Test series. The move followed back-to-back defeats and left the country’s former glory in the 1980s and 1990s looking increasingly remote.

Tariq Butt, a veteran Pakistani cricket official based in the United Arab Emirates, has watched the team for decades. He was part of the administration at Sharjah Cricket Stadium when the venue hosted major international matches in the 1980s and 1990s, and he also played first-class cricket in Pakistan.

He remembers a team that often struggled with dressing-room disputes and clashes between players, but still managed to fight collectively on the field. Pakistan once pushed the dominant West Indies close during the mid-to-late 1980s. Today, the white-ball teams can still produce runs of respectable form, while the red-ball side has fallen to a low point.

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I have seen Pakistan cricket and its cricket superstars at close quarters. There have always been problems, ego clashes between those great players. But that never stopped them from playing as a unit, and that was the reason why they were so successful.

Pakistan had lost eight of its previous 11 Test matches abroad since 2023, including a 2-0 whitewash in Bangladesh. Expectations were already low before the England series, but the manner of the defeats intensified the criticism. Pakistan failed to reach 200 in any of its four innings in the opening two Tests. Apart from Mohammad Abbas, its bowlers appeared ordinary, while its batters struggled against the moving ball.

Former England player Michael Vaughan said the Pakistan side was no better than England’s second-division county teams. The board then removed Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Aamir Jamal, Muhammad Awais Zafar and Khurram Shahzad from the tour. Five uncapped players replaced them for the third Test, scheduled for September 9-13.

Butt warned that targeting players or coaches alone would not fix the sport’s problems. “I have seen Pakistan cricket and its cricket superstars at close quarters. There have always been problems, ego clashes between those great players. But that never stopped them from playing as a unit, and that was the reason why they were so successful,” he said.

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This Pakistan side was no better than the second-division county teams of England.