3 min readMay 20, 2026 03:57 PM IST
Former Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal has called the 2-0 Test series defeat to Bangladesh the worst performance he has seen from a Pakistan side in his lifetime, saying the rot runs too deep for any quick fix.
Speaking on the Game Plan YouTube channel after the series defeat, Akmal began by crediting the opposition. “Bahut-bahut mubarak to Bangladesh and the whole nation,” he said. “Tremendous cricket, no doubt. Despite everything they were going through — the protests, the government situation — they never moved away from their basics. Big achievement.”
But on Pakistan, he said there were no words left. “There is nothing left except shame,” he said. “We have been saying the same things for six or seven years. Nothing has changed.”
Akmal was damning about those running Pakistani cricket, saying decisions were being made by people with no cricket knowledge and no accountability. “When non-cricketers have their ego involved, cricket will not improve,” he said. “When you select by parachute, merit and skill are zero to you. Where the actual fault is, there will be no accountability, no criteria for performance.”
He pointed to a telling pattern around fitness. “In PSL not a single player is ever unfit,” he said. “Domestic cricket starts and fitness letters start coming in. Not one will come during PSL. When this is the mentality, how will cricket improve?”
Akmal was particularly angry about how domestic players were being treated. “A player who can score 100, 200, bowl 18 overs a day — you are finishing his cricket career because he couldn’t do one jump,” he said. “Two kilometres, if he is half a minute over, you say he is not fit to play. Look at yourselves first — those who are making cricket decisions.”
He drew a direct comparison with India, citing MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as captains who always put the team first. “Pujara was dropped, Ajinkya Rahane was dropped, Shikhar Dhawan was dropped — how big a performer was he?” he said. “Cricket first, team first. Here they bring friendships onto the field.”
On the path forward, Akmal called for a return to basics — rebuilding from club level up, identifying specialist Test players and giving fast bowlers enough red-ball cricket to develop properly. “When that system is built, then we can say we are standing again,” he said.
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He was bleak about the timeline. “Practically speaking, I don’t see things improving in the next four or five years,” he said. “It will continue the way it has been going.”
His final message was direct. “If you want to get better, you will have to take big, hard decisions,” he said. “Otherwise nothing will improve.”
