The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was chaired by Ehsan Mani from 2018 to 2021. In addition, he presided over the ICC as its president from 2003 to 2006. After the Men in Green were eliminated from the 2025 Champions Trophy, Shahid Afridi criticized Pakistani cricket, but Mani ignored his criticism. Due to bad choices, Afridi, one of the best all-round players to have ever played cricket, claimed that “cricket in Pakistan cricket is in ICU.”
The 45-year-old continued by criticizing the selection committee’s choice to include Shadab Khan in the T20I team, which will play five matches in New Zealand beginning on Sunday, March 16, despite his dismal performance in his previous ten domestic cricket matches.
Ehsan Mani asserted that Afridi has his “own personal agendas” and refuses to give credence to his opinions.
But after poor performances in the 2023 ODI World Cup, 2024 T20 World Cup, and the most recent Champions Trophy, the 79-year-old believes that the board’s directors and current PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi must take charge of Pakistan cricket as a whole.
Anything spoken by Shahid Afridi or anybody else is not credible in my opinion. They have personal agendas or something. Thus, I would avoid going there. Not a word on that. My only recommendation is that the PCB’s chairman and board of directors should be in charge. Regarding the others, I don’t think these criticisms are very credible,” Mani told Hindustan Times.
In the upcoming white-ball series, the Men in Green will want to improve their record against New Zealand, who advanced to the Champions Trophy finals. Some of the Kiwis’ best players will be sidelined as they prepare for the Indian Premier League 2025, which begins on March 22. After regular captain Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, and Naseem Shah were dropped, Salman Ali Agha will command Pakistan in the Twenty20 Internationals. Following the T20I rubber, a three-match ODI series will be played between the two nations.
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