Pakistan cricket has had a rollercoaster year in 2024, with Babar Azam's resignation on October 2 just the latest chapter.
There aren't many years in which Pakistan cricket can be said to function as normal. But the past 9-12 months have been quite out there, even for one of the most popularly dysfunctional boards in world cricket.
Three captaincy stints, two resignations, one sacking, no ODIs
The previous calendar year ended in disappointing fashion, as Pakistan failed to make the top four of the 2023 World Cup, losing to Afghanistan along the way. That prompted the resignation of skipper Babar Azam, and he was replaced by Shan Masood in Test cricket and Shaheen Afridi in white-ball cricket.
If Pakistan were hoping for a magical turnaround, they were left disappointed.
On Pakistan's T20I tour of New Zealand in January, Shaheen only narrowly avoided suffering the ignominy of leading a team to a 5-0 series loss, as they went down 4-1. He was stripped of the captaincy soon after the series, with Babar reinstated. At the time of writing, that is the first and last time Shaheen has led Pakistan in T20I cricket.
With Babar's second resignation from white-ball captaincy earlier this week, Pakistan are set to embark on (yet another) new era. If you're still following, that means Pakistan will now enter their third different captaincy stint in limited-overs cricket in the last year.
Read more: Who should be Pakistan's next white-ball captain?
While the sequence of events is dramatic enough on its own, there has been more to it as well. After Shaheen lost his place at the helm in March, a PCB statement attributed to him a quote in support of Babar (remember, both Shaheen's predecessor and his successor), which he claimed he had never said. The bowler also went on to post a cryptic Instagram story containing the words "don't test my patience" later in the week.
Later that month, Pakistan drew a home T20I series 2-2 against New Zealand's virtual 'C' team, whose first-teamers were occupied with the IPL. In May, they suffered a shock loss to Ireland before losing the only two complete matches they played on their T20I tour of England.
And so, Pakistan entered the T20 World Cup in the USA with a record of five wins and nine losses in the format, but as ever, described as mercurial and capable of suddenly turning it around to find their best form.
There was no such fairytale though. Their opening match of the tournament saw them hit a nadir as they tied with the tournament hosts in Dallas, going on to lose the Super Over. After a loss to India, their campaign was all but done and wins over Canada and Ireland did nothing to improve the mood.
As has been the case with Pakistan cricket, change is the only constant. Selection committee members Wahab Riaz and Abdul Razzaq lost their posts following the tournament. Wahab had only taken over as chief selector after the 2023 World Cup in November, and PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi had "reorganised" the structure of the committee in March 2024.
Naqvi's latest brainchild has been the introduction of the Champions Cup competitions, in an effort to bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket. The mentors for the five teams, all former Pakistan internationals, will be paid 5 million PKR per year. This announcement preceded the news that Pakistan's women's team have not been paid for four months, and the men's team for three.
Through this rollercoaster year, the Test setup may not have been gripped by the same instability in leadership but their condition is not much better. Since taking over from Babar, Shan Masood has led the side to five losses in five Tests – three in Australia (somewhat understandable) and two at home to Bangladesh (less understandable). They will now take on England in a three-Test series from Monday, with trepidation the overriding emotion.
If you've managed to keep up so far, well done.
Just one more thing. All of this has happened since the last time Pakistan men played an ODI.
Also read: Ben Stokes ruled out of first Test against Pakistan, Brydon Carse to debut
Where do Pakistan go from here?
Pakistan's next ODI is scheduled for November 4 against Australia in Melbourne, a week shy of a year on from their previous fixture in the format. In that time period, Babar resigned, Shaheen was sacked, Babar resigned again, two selectors were sacked, and Pakistan's domestic structure had three new competitions added to it. Shakespeare and Abbas-Mustan put together couldn't write it.
This is partly an exercise in documentation, to put in one place everything that has transpired of late. It is easy from the outside to crack a smile at the ridiculousness of it all. But ultimately, it is Pakistan cricket and its most fervent supporters that are being shortchanged (at this point in time, the players as well in a more literal sense).
This wild 12 months (give or take) has been bookended on both sides by the resignation of the same man from the same post. It's cruelly poetic, and gives Pakistan the chance to start over. But this is a line that has been trotted out on several occasions before. Going forward, the faith is hard to find.
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