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Pakistan’s poor ICC 2025 Champions Trophy performance may hurt brand value and sponsors. PCB officials blame Chairman Mohsin Naqvi for prioritizing stadium upgrades over the team.
Mohammad Rizwan’s Pakistan could be looking at more bad days after the India defeat. (AP Photo)
Those in the know of the functioning of the Pakistan men’s cricket team, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the country’s marketing economy fear that the team might start losing brand value and sponsors after the team’s shoddy performance in the ICC 2025 Champions Trophy at home.
Pakistan lost to New Zealand by 60 runs in the tournament opener and then to arch-rivals India by six wickets on Sunday. Despite the tournament being a decent success in terms of crowd engagement so far, Pakistan’s back-to-back losses have left them on the brink of a group-stage exit and further off-field troubles.
“It was an uplifting experience to see people respond and enjoy a match not involving Pakistan,” news agency PTI cited a PCB source as saying. “But now, the challenge is to ensure the crowds keep on coming for the remaining matches in Pakistan, because we are hosting such a big event after 29 years,” the source conceded.
“We are guaranteed hosting fees, our share of ICC revenues including ticket sales, but there are other issues like people losing interest in the mega event, broadcasters showing half-filled stadiums etc. And the biggest worry is despite the craze for cricket here, it may not be easy to sell Pakistan cricket as a brand in future,” he said.
Board officials are blaming Chairman Mohsin Naqvi for not doing his best to help the team’s performance.
“His focus appeared to be on just the upgrade of the stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi whereas he forgot that the most important thing was to have a team that could make it to the final in the Champions Trophy because fans relate to performances,” the source said.
The report also cited a marketing advertising professional, Tahir Reza, who believes that the PCB’s biggest challenge is to keep fans connected with the team.
“It’s easy to say cricket sells itself in Pakistan but that is not the case because the interest and attachment of fans, sponsors, advertisers, broadcasters is all linked to the performances as well,” Tahir said. “If the team does not perform, and that too in a high-profile event like the CT, the sponsor wouldn’t hesitate to invest his money in other public interest domains like music, entertainment, other sports, etc.”
Tahir believes that the next edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) will show how much of a negative impact the team’s poor show in the Champions Trophy had on the money market.
