PCB reviews budget allocation, domestic structure of women’s wing

E-Paper | March 16, 2026

LAHORE: In what looks like an eyewash, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to review the budgetary allocation and domestic structure of its women’s wing in the wake of the national team’s pathetic performance at the ICC Women’s World Cup.

Pakistan lost all of their seven matches, finishing bottom of the eight-team event, and no one connected with the team has since come out to explain the reasons for their debacle.

However, Dawn has learnt that PCB’s game development department has decided to revisit the budgetary allocation and domestic structure of the women’s wing. Women’s wing secretary Shamsa Hashmi endorsed that there was a review underway but the international affairs and other activities wouldn’t be affected, adding trials were being held in Gilgit-Baltistan this week as per schedule.

But she was coy when asked if the review was a direct result of Pakistan’s dismal show at the World Cup in England. “I can’t say anything in this regard”, she said.

Shamsa added she was disappointed with the results, adding she was expecting the team to win against Sri Lanka, the West Indies and India.

“[Manager] Ayesha Ashar and [head coach] Sabih Azhar would submit their respective reports in next couple of days and then we can look where it went wrong,” she said.

Shamsa was also termed the performance of captain Sana Mir as “not very encouraging”.

Despite below-par results in the last nine years, Sana has held on to captaincy. So has Ayesha, despite PCB routinely changing coaches.

Sana’s hasn’t been in top form either, scoring 153 runs at an average of 30.60 while picking six wickets at an expensive 51.50 during the World Cup.

Asmavia Iqbal was Pakistan’s most successful bowler (eight wickets at 40.00), ahead of Diana Baig (seven, 30.00), Sadia Yousuf (seven, 39.14), Nasha Sandu (seven, 41.43), Kainat Imtiaz (three, 65.33) and Marina Iqbal (one, 56.00).

Nahida Siddiqi was Pakistan’s top batter with 173 runs, followed by Sana, Javeria Khan (127), Nain Abidi (114) and Ayesha Zafar (108).

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2017

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shahbano

Jul 19, 2017 03:53pm

Sana scored an average of over 30 in five innings. She had the highest batting average and performed with the bat AND the ball, even in games when the rest of the batting side collapsed like dominoes. (Nahida bibi, who played some brilliant innings, is a full time batter and opener had an average of 28.83 runs in 6 innings.) Sana also took about six catches, one of which was brilliant and Nissan play of the day. Sanas was the best all around and consistent performance; the stats speak for that. She is the only Pakistani female cricketer to be ranked in the top ten bowlers in the world and the only one who has a record of 100 wickets and over 1000 runs. No one else is ranked in the top ten and no one else from the Pakistani side has made that record. If all the blame for the losses is on the captain then what is Ms Shamsa Hashmi's role? What is the coach's role? What does management draw a salary for if it's all the captain's fault/ job?

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shahbano

Jul 19, 2017 04:57pm

Sana Mir is ranked number 10 in ICC ODI all rounders in the world and 12 in ODI bowlers in the world. No other Pakistani woman cricketer is in the top 20 in any category. Asmavia Iqbal is ranked number 55 in world bowlers. How is Ms Hashmi the GM when she doesn't even know how to analyze ICC statistics readily available on the webt?

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Huma

Jul 20, 2017 05:49am

Sana should step down as she did for T20 , because she had a very long innings as a captain and it is the right time to pass the baton . She should , however not step down because of the dismissal performance of the batters for which she has zero responsibility . The responsibility of improving the batting skills rests with the individual player and the batting coach. Sana was the "lone warrior " who showed best batting figures against the top teams India, New Zealand and Australia.

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