'Entire system destroyed': Usama Mir's cryptic swipe at PCB after Pakistan's England debacle

Pakistan spinner Usama Mir has called out the country’s cricket establishment right in the middle of the chaos sparked by the team’s disastrous tour of England. He implied the cricket system was already “destroyed” before officials even tried to fix it.

Mir spoke up just after the Pakistan Cricket Board made sweeping changes during the England series. They dropped seven players, as well as head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul, following back-to-back heavy defeats.

On X, Mir wrote, “Amazing how someone managed to destroy the entire system, and nobody even noticed.” Then he followed with a sharp proverb in Hindi-Urdu: “Ab pachhtaye kya, jab chidiya chug gayin khet.” It basically means it’s pointless to regret something after the damage is done. Mir didn’t mention the PCB or any individual, but the timing made his target obvious. His frustration reflected a bigger crisis brewing behind the scenes.

Pakistan fell apart quickly in the three-Test series. England hammered them by an innings and 103 runs at Headingley, then won by 194 runs at Lord’s to clinch the series 2-0. At Lord’s, Pakistan collapsed for 110 in their first innings and could only scrape together 194 when chasing 389, despite Saud Shakeel’s valiant 97.

One day after losing at Lord’s, the PCB announced major changes. Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Aamir Jamal, Muhammad Awais Zafar and Khurram Shahzad were dropped from the squad. Five of them played in that Lord’s defeat. The board also sacked Sarfaraz and Gul, replacing them with white-ball head coach Mike Hesson and assistant Ashley Noffke for the Test team.

Seven new players came in for the third Test at Edgbaston—Saim Ayub, Abdullah Fazal, Arafat Minhas, Mohammad Imran Jnr, Saad Baig, Mohammad Imran Randhawa and Razaullah. Five of these players have never played Test cricket before. Making such drastic changes mid-series has led to even more questions about how the board is running things.

Former captain Ramiz Raja called it a “panic button” move. Shahid Afridi questioned the selections, and former coach Mickey Arthur didn’t hold back, slamming the decisions as “absolutely ridiculous” and blaming the lack of stability and forward planning. Even Misbah-ul-Haq, a selector, offered his resignation. Mir’s posts resonate more in this context.

His criticism goes deeper than complaining about who was dropped or kept. He’s pointing at a deeper sickness in how Pakistan cricket is managed. By quoting the proverb, he made it clear: these last-minute fixes don’t really matter if the real damage was ignored for too long. 

Pakistan gets one last shot to salvage something when the third Test starts at Edgbaston on September 9. But no matter what happens, the problems are bigger than the scoreboard, and the fallout will linger long after the series ends.

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