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The Chairman Who Couldn't Watch: Pakistan Cricket Boss Flees Before Humiliating Defeat
In the pressure-cooker world of India-Pakistan cricket, what happens off the field can be just as explosive as the action in the middle. But after Pakistan's latest thrashing by their greatest rivals, attention has swung away from dropped catches and dodgy bowling to something far more damaging: the cricket board chairman doing a runner before the match had even finished.
Mohsin Naqvi, the man at the top of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), is copping fierce criticism—not just for his team's collapse, but for his own hasty exit from the stadium while his side were still technically batting.
Heading for the Hills
For Pakistani fans, cricket isn't just a game—it's wrapped up in national identity and pride. So when your team's being hammered and the bloke in charge scarpers before the final wicket falls, people notice. As India tightened their grip and Pakistan's hopes evaporated, Naqvi was apparently spotted making for the exit. To the furious faithful back home, it looked like a shameful bottle job—the cricket equivalent of a captain abandoning ship while it's still afloat, barely.
All Talk, No Action
What makes this even more galling is Naqvi's own tough talk. After previous disasters, he'd promised "major surgery" for the national team—sackings, shake-ups, the works. Yet when crunch time arrived and his side fell apart again, the only thing being cut was Naqvi himself from the scene. Critics reckon the PCB's top brass are keener on managing their own image from a safe distance than standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a team in the trenches.
A Nation's Fury
The backlash has been savage. Social media's been ablaze, former players have waded in, and ordinary fans from Lahore to Karachi are saying the same thing: if you can't stomach watching your team lose, you've got no business leading them. Naqvi's quick getaway has become a symbol of everything wrong with Pakistan cricket—a board seen as out of touch, ducking responsibility, and unwilling to face the music. He might have spared himself a few awkward moments in the stands, but he's paid for it with a collapse in public confidence.
The Bottom Line
Mohsin Naqvi's premature departure tells you everything about where Pakistan cricket is right now: adrift, leaderless, and taking on water while the man supposedly steering has already made for the lifeboats. The players will get their roasting in the technical reviews, but the chairman's vanishing act means this crisis is now about more than just bad cricket—it's about bad leadership. In a rivalry as fierce as India-Pakistan, there's nowhere to hide from defeat. For Naqvi, the embarrassment he tried to escape has chased him all the way home.