Ehsan Mani Attacks Shahid Afridi’s Agendas; Criticizes ICC For Champions Trophy 2025

Pakistan’s recent performance in the ICC events, including the 2023 ODI World Cup, the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy at home, is not inspiring as their former chairman, Ehsan Mani, expressed his frustration at the structure of the PCB.

They failed to register a single Test victory in the home two-match series against Pakistan before getting exposed to England in the opening game. The last-minute decision to alter the pitch raised a few questions before the Shan Masood-led side faced another series defeat in South Africa.

Ehsan Mani explains Pakistan’s need for the hour

Ehsan Mani was the PCB chairman from 2017 to 2021. He felt that the country is not lacking any talent but the key is in bringing talent to the game in an ecosystem, and it’s only about getting the house in order.

“Look, there's no shortage of talent in Pakistan. It's a matter of just going back and rethinking how to take Pakistan or cricket forward. I started the process by introducing a new format for first-class cricket, and, for all forms of cricket in Pakistan, based on provincial teams.” Mani expressed in a recent interaction on Hindustan Times.

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The PCB has experienced so many changes in the leadership department with multiple individuals of Ramiz Raza, Najam Sethi, Zaka Ashraf, and Mohsin Naqvi stepping up and taking their turn at different situations.

“What we are having in Pakistan is a lot of cricket but very little quality cricket. And I think people have to go back to the point of ensuring that the basic structure of the game in Pakistan is fit for purpose and suitable for modern-day requirements.” Ehsan Mani explained.

“Well, PCB needs to go back and look at the whole game structure in Pakistan. Make sure there's high-quality, competitive cricket being played, which is not the case today in Pakistan," he added.

Ex-PCB chairman seeks consistency in PCB

Even in the coaching department or in the leadership group, the side seeks consistency. They removed Babar Azam as the T20I captain to appoint Shaheen Shah Afridi as the new leader before bringing back Babar in the same place for the T20 World Cup.

Pakistan also failed to keep Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie in the same manner as both of them stepped down from their roles in the white-ball and red-ball sides.

“The policy must come from the top. And the same with the support for the team itself, from coaches and managers and so on. There must be consistency in that, and there must be clarity of the way forward for the team as a whole.” Ehsan Mani argues the importance of consistency.

"Hopefully, the current chairman has been there for a while, and he will start coming up with his thoughts and ideas. But there should be a consensus on how to take Pakistan cricket forward. It shouldn't be left to one person.” He states in the same interaction.

Ehsan Mani rejects claims of India’s unfair advantage in Champions Trophy

A few days ago, the former all-rounder and captain of the Pakistan side, Shahid Afridi, reckoned that Naqvi doesn’t have any cricketing knowledge and declared that the sport in the country would further go down. Ehsan Mani, however, feels that the chairman’s place will naturally put everything into line.

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“I do not give any credibility to what Shahid Afridi or anyone else says. They have their agendas or whatever. So I wouldn't go there. No comment on that. All I would say is that leadership must come from the chairman and the board of directors of PCB. For the rest, I don't give much credibility to these criticisms.” The veteran highlighted.

He was not impressed with ICC’s management in the eight-team event, but also brushed off the claims of India getting an unfair advantage in the tournament.

“The pitch was the same for all the teams playing there. Yes, BCCI played in one ground for all these matches, but that was something that the ICC had decided right from the outset they would do. There's no point of being critical about that later on.” Ehsan Mani concluded.