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This may land me in hot water but I owe an honest assessment to Pakistan cricket. I was a fan before I was a stakeholder.
Things I’ve observed from my playing days + actively being involved with the PSL, dressing room and PCB leadership:
- The players may or may not be comfortable.
A. Late nights and junk food are common. Now I understand living on hotel food and being stuck for 6 weeks is tough, but the word “professional” has to mean something.
B. No one wants to do the tough yards. It’s a mentality thing. Like for instance a few times in the test match after a long spell the pace bowlers didn’t run after the ball. What are you saving your legs for? The test match ended in 2.5 days…
C. Compare the test match pace and white ball pace of seamers. They are so scared of being injured and losing their T20 gigs. You have to train to bowl fast to be able to bowl fast. And fast bowling is painful.
- The journalists may or may not be cancerous tumour
A. The growth of Sports Journalism was great as it brought us closer to the team, inner workings, selection and the injustices around Pakistan cricket but like any other avenue in our country, the bad eggs took over and they also corrupted the good eggs.
B. Journalists all pushing their own agendas,
And they build narratives on who they like / who caters for them more I.e these things may or may not be leaks , gifts, favours. Most if not all may or may not be comprised.
C. They may or may not be loyal to Pakistan. It’s only about their views, content, income.
D. They may or may not be the scummiest of all stakeholders.
- Former players may or may not be too comfortable.
A. Barring a few who actually worked and got their coaching badges and qualifications most find it more comfortable to go on tv and just iterate the problems. No one presents the solutions nor goes out there and gets the experience / qualifications to contribute. They all may or may not want things on a platter , without doing the hard yards to become better coaches / tacticians , the same hard work that actually made them so good at cricket in the first place
- job first, Pakistan later
A. The board is too bureaucratic. Everyone fears to speak their mind because they worry about backlash and their jobs. There are people that genuinely wanted to help , but when they see their efforts go no where they stop trying and just settle for their paycheck.
B. The chairman is not the problem. The reliance for decision making in the board on the role may be but in this case other avenues and roles the current chair he’s shown his leadership skills, it’s solely cricket where the results cannot be seen. Why is that? In my experience a good leader needs good advisors.
- PSL owners are not incentivised to grow the teams
A. 10 year lease, you grow the brand, only to give it back to the PCB. So why would you grow if you see none of the benefit? Only the bills.
B. You invest in players and talent hunts only to lose them due to retention rules and category changes that are agenda driven.
The language may or may not have been altered for legal purposes.
Pakistan cricket will always be in my heart. Pray for us to go back to being the best. Not just good or competitive, but the best.
Adding my support here to GC and the other former international captains. I hope the court ordered medical assessment be allowed to run its course, and that family visits continue. I hope Imran Khan is treated with the dignity anyone deserves
Nasser Hussain - "How's that finger. Is there any pain at all? Yesterday you said you are 90% fit".
Babar Azam - "Na, just kidding. Yesterday it was 90%, now it's 100%, that's why I am here". (Smiles)
Two of England’s greatest unveiled at Lord’s this evening.
Painted by artist Jamie Routley, James Anderson and Stuart Broad stand side by side in the Lord’s Long Room.
A portrait befitting of two absolute legends of the game.
Whether you love him or hate him, we cannot afford Babar Azam failing. For the sake of Pakistan's cricket fans, Babar Azam doing well in international cricket is close to essential.
Think what actually sustains a sport in this country. To keep interest alive, to create excitement, to pull people back to their TVs and into the stadiums, you need stars who sell tickets. Not just good players, stars. And right now Babar Azam is the only one we have. Set his batting aside for a second and look at the reaction he generates: massive popularity, and massive hatred too, and both of those mean the same thing, that people are watching. Nobody argues about a player they have stopped caring about.
And then this effect runs downwards. Every U19 star and every newcomer coming through this system models himself on Babar, his technique, his shot selection, his bearing at the crease. A generation of Pakistani batting is being built on the template of one man, which means his standing matters far beyond his own average.
None of this means every match should become a referendum on him. That obsession has done real damage, to him and to the players who get ignored while it plays out. But a star and a referendum are different things, and we have confused them for years.
Him doing well, and eventually retiring with something genuinely special, would not just be good for Babar Azam. It would be good for a whole this Pakistani generation that has hardly ever had a star of this size.
Nobody in Pakistani cricket divides opinion like Babar Azam. Nobody makes both sides stop and watch either.
There is a test you can run on yourself. Next time Babar Azam walks out, notice what happens to the room. The people who defend him go quiet. The people who have spent two years calling for him to be dropped go quiet too. Everybody watches.
That is the thing his critics never quite account for. Even if you have decided he is finished, even if you have written the posts and made the arguments, when he middles the first cover drive of an innings you stop what you are doing. He never looks ugly. He has probably never played an ungainly shot in his life. There is no scramble in his batting, no survival mode that looks like panic, no heave across the line. Everything is on the same rails, at 5 or at 95.
And that is precisely why the disappointment cuts so deep, because beauty raises the expectation and the temperament has not always met it. The starts that should have become match-defining hundreds have too often stopped at fifty, and the record now reads like a collection of beginnings.
You can love him or dismiss him. What you cannot do is stop watching, and honestly, that may be the most damning compliment in Pakistani cricket.
In a sea of 50,000 people from over 100 countries of the world, #TheExistenceProject placed a single phone in the middle of a giant field.
Then we invited everyone, young and old - to pour their hearts out to their Creator.
THIS is what happened.
We asked a stranger to open up about the hardest chapter of his life.
His mother's words changed everything:
After chemotherapy, he says, "Allah was with me every step of the way."
#Islam
#God #Faith #JalsaConnect #JalsaSalanaUK2026
Jama'at Ahmadiyya is often imititaed, never duplicated ❌❌💪
🔹Adnan Rashid is asking people to become "Ansar"
🔹Adnan Rashid is asking people to pledge monthly donations
🔹Adnan Rashid is encouraging also the kids to participate
Bro, just say "join Ahmadiyya-islam", that system is already in place and operating for well over 100 years now 😅
This Jalsa Salana was different
Best moment for me apart from baiat and speeches of beloved Hazur was today I was walking and a brother told me two of his friends accepted Islam Ahmadiyya through my videos.
Then I walked further and met a young brother from Slough who also told me the debates helped him make his decision
It was so motivating to meet such amazing brothers from around the world. The love we have for each other is not found anywhere and seeing the youth and how much they benefitted was motivating to another level alhamdulillah
So much planned now and I request prayers
#JalsaUK