Mohsin Naqvi launched a bizarre defense of Pakistan's troubles |courtesy - BCCI/AP As Pakistan cricket continues to hit one low after another, it is widely feared that the sport is heading towards the same fate as the squash and hockey did in the country. However, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) remains in denial and referenced India's defeat to Ireland earlier this year. For those unversed, the World Champions lost a two-match series to Ireland 2-0 in what was their maiden outing after winning the 2026 T20 World Cup and under Shreyas Iyer's captaincy. Naqvi also mentioned South Africa's defeat to Namibia in a T20I last week and questioned if that means cricket in India and South Africa is also in decline. Naqvi also defended Pakistan's radical mid-series culling during their ongoing tour of England and claimed they have been left with no choice but to make changes due to the non-performance of players. "Let me ask you one thing: South Africa lost to Namibia, and India lost to Ireland. Has cricket ended there as well? Yes, one thing is important: whoever we need here, we will definitely bring in. If someone is not clicking or not performing, then what can we do? Every match and every series is important for us," said Naqvi in a press conference in London. "Agha is such a brilliant player, and yet he is not clicking at the moment for certain reasons. We are not telling him, ‘We asked you to go and rest’; we spoke to him and did everything. So, the objective is not to remove someone from the team. The objective is that if a player is not clicking, then we should make a change," Naqvi added. Naqvi claimed that Pakistan's rankings in white-ball cricket have improved in the recent past, while conceding the performances in Test cricket are worrying. The PCB chairman references victories in bilateral series to claim improvement in T20I and ODI series. "Yes, absolutely, what happened in the Test match cannot be termed wrong. We have lost these two matches, but I believe that, God willing, we will make progress in the coming days, just as we did in ODIs and T20Is. I have never been afraid of criticism, and I never will be. Those who say cricket has been destroyed since I came - look at what the rankings were before we brought our coaching team. We were eighth in ODIs and now we're fifth, in T20Is we jumped to sixth position from ninth," Naqvi concluded. For those unversed, Pakistan is currently in the last spot (9th spot) in the 2025-27 World Test Championship (WTC) standings. They finished as the wooden spoon holders in the last (2023-25) cycle too. Ahead of the third and final Test against England from September 9 in Birmingham, the PCB has released seven players from the squad, which include vice-captain Salman Ali Agha, former captain Mohammad Rizwan, and under-fire opener Iman-Ul-Haq. They have also sacked head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul with white-ball coach Mike Hesson taking charge of the side. Aayush Kataria is a Senior Copy Editor at Times Network with four years of experience, having started his career in the organisation. He is a key memb... View More