Pakistan was the first team knocked out of Champions Trophy 2025.
Pakistan's humiliating exit from the Champions Trophy 2025 is bound to have consequences. Rana Sanaullah, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's advisor, stated in an interview that the PM will take notice of structural flaws in the Pakistan Cricket Board, which Mohsin Naqvi leads.
Sanaullah delivered an angry interview to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, claiming that despite the PCB's autonomy, it has failed to deliver results.
The Pakistani Prime Minister's advisor stated that the PCB did what they liked, including spending an unlimited amount of money on the Champions Cup, which had a budget of 900 million Pakistani rupees.
“The cricket board is an independent institution. They can do as they please, which they have. And what they’ve done, it is my personal opinion that I will request the prime minister to discuss the matter in the cabinet and parliament. This is not about any particular instance, or about any one chairman being appointed. This is a process that you can see has been happening for the past five or 10 years,” Sanaullah told Dawn Newspaper.
Even for the renovation of the three stadiums for the Champions Trophy, the Pakistan board overshot its budget. As per PTI, Pakistan had originally planned to spend PKR 12.3 billion on renovation costs, but it went over by nearly 6 billion PKR when the project was completed.
Sanaullah also attacked the Champions Cup, which was the brainchild of PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi and was intended to raise the levels of indigenous players in Pakistan.
Sanaullah alleged that the five Champions Cup coaches had no idea what they were doing and were simply being paid to do nothing.
“Mentors are being paid PKR 5 million and have been heard admitting to the media that they are unaware of their responsibilities, so they’ve been taking PKR 5 million monthly for not working. If you see their perks and privileges, you will be surprised, and you’ll wonder if this is Pakistan or some progressive European nation. These are all things that the Prime Minister himself will take notice of,” he concluded.
Since their appearance in the T20 World Cup 2022 final, Pakistan has faced group-stage exits in the following three ICC events.