Rashid Latif criticizes PCB after Lord’s defeat: 'Worst board in 70 years'
Pakistan’s latest collapse at Lord’s has not just deepened a crisis on the field. It has ignited a firestorm off it.
A 194-run defeat to England in the second Test, sealing the series 2-0 with a match to spare, has drawn stinging criticism from former captain Rashid Latif, who has turned his guns not on the players alone, but squarely on the Pakistan Cricket Board and its leadership.
England’s dominance has been brutal. Pakistan have failed to reach 200 even once in the series, repeatedly leaving their bowlers exposed and out of answers. The gulf has been so stark that parts of the British media have branded this touring side the “worst Pakistan side in the last 50 years.”
Latif does not dispute that description. He goes further.
Speaking on Geo News, the former wicketkeeper-batter launched a scathing attack on the PCB administration, the selection committee and the coaching staff, insisting the rot runs far deeper than the dressing room.
“Everyone is talking about the Pakistan team, and how it is the worst touring team in the last 50 years. But nobody is speaking about how the current board is the worst in the last 70 years. Nobody is talking about the worst selection committee and coaches,” Latif said, arguing that the structure around the team has played a central role in its decline.
“If you combine these issues, you will get the answer to your question. You will know who has ruined this team. Now you are losing consistently. This is the worst cricket board, that's a fact,” he added, laying responsibility at the door of PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi and the current regime.
Batting in freefall, Babar under the spotlight
On the field, the numbers are damning.
Across two Tests, Pakistan’s batting has disintegrated under pressure, with repeated top-order failures and no meaningful resistance in the middle. Every innings has stalled before 200, every faint recovery snuffed out by England’s relentless attack.
Babar Azam’s return at Lord’s was supposed to steady the ship. The captain, who missed the opening Test, walked out with the weight of expectation and the hope that his class might inspire a revival.
Instead, he endured another bleak outing.
Scores of 8 and 6 told their own story. His second-innings dismissal cut even deeper: Jofra Archer targeted him with a sharp bouncer, rattled him, and exposed a growing unease against the short ball. For a player long seen as Pakistan’s batting anchor, the sight of Babar fending and fidgeting under sustained hostility only sharpened the sense of crisis.
With no one in the top order able to absorb pressure or occupy the crease, Pakistan’s bowlers have been left chasing games they were never truly in. The series has slipped away with barely a contest.
As the squad prepares to move to Birmingham for the final Test at Edgbaston, beginning September 9, the questions around the captain, the batting unit, and the people who picked and prepared them are only getting louder.
Lord’s drama moves off the pitch
The turmoil has not been confined to cricketing matters.
The Lord’s Test unfolded under the shadow of an off-field dispute involving the PCB and Sky Sports, after the broadcaster aired an 18-minute interview with Sulaiman and Kasim Khan, sons of former Pakistan captain and former prime minister Imran Khan.
In the programme, they spoke about their father’s circumstances and treatment while he remains in prison, a subject that inevitably carries political weight in Pakistan.
Reports then emerged claiming the PCB had threatened to withdraw Pakistan from the Test if Sky Sports went ahead with the broadcast. The suggestion of such an extreme step, on such a sensitive issue, sent ripples through the cricketing world.
Inside the camp, though, there was denial. Babar Azam and head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed both said they were unaware of any plan to pull the team out of the match. Whatever conversations took place at boardroom level, the players took the field as scheduled.
The controversy did not alter the cricketing outcome. England, unfazed by the noise, wrapped up a comprehensive victory and with it the series.
Pakistan now head to Edgbaston with pride to salvage, reputations to repair, and a raging debate at home about whether this is simply a poor team on a bad tour—or the inevitable result of what Latif calls the “worst cricket board” the country has seen in 70 years.
