ONCE England won the toss in Kolkata yesterday and elected to bat, Pakistan’s task of reaching the World Cup semi-finals by overcoming New Zealand on the basis of the net run rate became all but impossible. Before the game, certain permutations made for grim reading for Babar Azam’s men, especially if they were to be chasing a target in the last game of the league stage. When England posted 337-9, it meant Pakistan had to chase it down in 6.4 overs to have any chance. For the second World Cup in a row, Pakistan failed to progress beyond the league stage. Once again, they left themselves with too much to do, not to mention they were relying on other results going their way as well.

Pakistan had entered the tournament as the world’s top-ranked side but four successive defeats put them in a perilous position. They showed some powers of recovery with the return of Fakhar Zaman inspiring hope and the opener leading them to victories against Bangladesh and New Zealand. However, it wasn’t enough and as team director Mickey Arthur put it, they needed ‘divine help’ when New Zealand were playing Sri Lanka on Thursday. The predicted rains didn’t arrive and New Zealand’s thumping win saw them put one foot in the semi-finals; Pakistan were left to rue their narrow loss to South Africa and the shock defeat to Afghanistan.

Winning and losing, though, is part of the game. While yet another early World Cup exit will rankle, it shouldn’t shift the focus from governance issues in the Pakistan Cricket Board. If PCB’s interim management committee chairman Zaka Ashraf’s move to share a screenshot of a private conversation between skipper Babar and PCB COO Salman Naseer wasn’t enough, there was the saga of the resignation of the chief selector. Inzamam-ul-Haq quit during the tournament after PCB began investigating a potential conflict of interest as he was on the board of directors of a company alongside an agent who represents a majority of the players on the Pakistan squad. PCB’s media head appeared on a private television network, saying it was Inzamam’s responsibility to inform the PCB about the conflict of interest and that his resignation had not been accepted. His resignation was only accepted after the former captain gave an explosive interview in which he lashed out at Zaka Ashraf, whose committee has been given a three-month extension. While there will be a postmortem of the team’s performance, there also needs to be clarity on matters pertaining to the board. It is imperative that elections are held by the PCB interim committee by the end of this term so that not only is there stability at the top but also better decision-making.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2023