Haroon Rasheed blames administration for Pakistan's decline, hails India's rise

Karachi: Former Pakistan Test batter and ex-head coach Haroon Rasheed believes the widening gulf between Indian and Pakistan cricket is rooted not in talent, but in structure, planning and long-term investment at the grassroots level.

Drawing a sharp contrast between the two systems, Haroon said India are now reaping the rewards of a robust domestic and age-group pipeline, while Pakistan continue to suffer from inconsistency, administrative instability and neglect of club cricket.

Speaking on hamaraiweb.com, Haroon said India's depth of talent — especially in T20 cricket — has become so vast that selectors may soon struggle to settle on their strongest playing XI across formats.

In contrast, Haroon lamented the decline of Pakistan's domestic structure, saying the lack of continuity in policies, captaincy, coaching and selection has severely hurt the national team.

"The recent Test defeats to Bangladesh and even before that in white ball cricket our performances tell the whole story of our cricket," he said.

Haroon, who worked in the Pakistan Cricket Board in different capacities, including as chief selector, coach of the senior and junior national teams and also headed the cricket academy, said that India right now was reaping the benefits of their investment and consistency.

"Right now India has so much talent to pick from, particularly in T20 cricket. The reason is all their players are coming through a proper system from various age groups." Haroon said one of the main problems affecting Pakistan cricket was the absence of consistency, planning and continuity in major decisions.

"I don't think changing the board chairman so frequently has helped at all. I worked under at least six different chairman at my time in the board and when a new chairman comes in, it means he brings in his own people, policies and mindset," Haroon said.

He pointed out that most of the PCB chiefs didn't have cricket backgrounds so they relied heavily on advice from others.

"In Pakistan there is a dire need to change the domestic structure which has survived competition between association and departmental cricket and come up with a new concept or we will be left behind. Even Bangladesh has now shown how they have improved." The former Test batter also noted that the board never showed confidence in their captains.

"When you decide to appoint a captain in any format it would have been done with much thought process so how can you keep on changing captains, how will this allow the Pakistan team to be consistent and stable," he questioned.

Haroon also noted that whenever Pakistan had had long serving captains, the results had been better.

"There are a lot of things that need to be put right in Pakistan cricket. Or else we will fall further behind. Because we are not even grooming our young talent properly or giving them the right coaching and exposure to prepare them for long term international cricket."