"Pakistan Cricket Board is a circus. There are jokers in that" - Former all-rounder slams PCB over scheduling
Former Pakistan all-rounder Yasir Arafat slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and its personnel for the scheduling of the domestic one-day tournament with the England Test series coming up. The Men in Green are coming off a shocking 0-2 home Test series loss to Bangladesh, their first-ever in the long format to their Asian rivals.
Yet, with the Pakistan Test side in the doldrums and a massive assignment against a formidable English team coming up, the board has the Champions One Day Cup scheduled from September 12 to 29. Pakistan will start their three-Test home series against England on October 7.
In a YouTube video going viral on social media, Arafart said:
"Your grey areas have been highlighted. Fitness issues, technique issues, and pitches. Today I heard Jason Gillespie and the high-performance coach are going back to Australia. You are conducting an ODI tournament. These decisions I don't understand. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is a circus. There are jokers in that, and this is a joke."
"You have a Test series against England coming up, and you are bringing players for ODIs. Shan Masood is saying in a press conference that our players have not played first-class cricket for 1.5 years. You have a big series against England coming up, and you are playing ODIs. This looks like a circus to me. The people who are working are jokers, and their decisions are jokes," he added.
With their recent Bangladesh series defeat, Pakistan slipped to a lowly eighth on the latest ICC Test Team Rankings.
They also find themselves second to bottom on the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC) standings.
Pakistan have not won a home Test since January 2021
It hasn't been home cooking for Pakistan in Tests as they haven't won a red-ball game on home soil since the South Africa series in January 2021.
Pakistan have since lost six of their next 10 home Tests with the other four ending in draws. This includes series losses to Australia, England, and Bangladesh, with the latter two being whitewashes.
The Bangladesh defeats also made it five consecutive Test losses for Pakistan overall following their 0-3 whitewash against Australia down under earlier this year.
Pakistan's last Test match and series win came in Sri Lanka in July 2023 when Babar Azam was still captain. However, Shan Masood replaced him at the helm in the red-ball format at the end of last year and continues to search for his first win as Test captain.