Pakistan needs to move on from scapegoat culture: National selector

Pakistan national selector Aaqib Javed believes that the country and the country's cricket board need to move on from scapegoating culture to move forward in international cricket.

After Pakistan's disastrous exit from the T20 World Cup 2026, national selector Aaqib Javed has called upon the country's cricket board to react in a level-headed manner. In a desperate bid to perhaps save his own job, Javed said that Pakistan should move away from a scapegoating culture in the aftermath of a difficult tournament.

Pakistan have endured a very difficult period in international cricket over the last four years. Since featuring in the 2022 T20 World Cup final, the team have been knocked out in the group stages of the ODI World Cup 2023, T20 World Cup 2024 and Champions Trophy 2025. They stuttered in the Asia Cup 2025 and then failed once again in the T20 World Cup 2026.

Not only have the team's performances been poor, the Pakistan Cricket Board has also failed to stick with a consistent team management group and has hired and fired some of the top coaches in the world, including Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie. Amid all the hiring and firing, it is Aaqib Javed who has survived the wrath of the PCB.

However, after yet another disaster in a world tournament, Javed has been proactive about finding solutions and changing the culture of the team, stating that the PCB needs to react in a constructive manner after difficult tournaments.

"In our setup, whenever a team loses, there is always a demand to punish someone," Aaqib Javed said in a press conference in Lahore on Saturday, March 14.

"It happened at the previous World Cup, then the Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup. Whenever we lose, we go over the top, demanding the whole team, coach or selectors be changed. The way we change coaches and selectors never happens anywhere else in world cricket. We'll have to move past scapegoating people," he added.