OUTSIDE EDGE WHITE BALL PRINCES, RED BALL DUNCES.

With another massively successful Pakistan Super League (PSL) in the books, the contrast between our white ball and red ball fortunes could not be starker.

In the white corner, we have back-to-back semi-final and final appearances in the last two T20 World Cups, another final appearance in the last Asia Cup, a tri-series win in New Zealand, a ridiculously high win rate in bilaterals, and the ultimate jewel in our crown, the PSL.

The PSL: a world-class league that unearths talent every year, makes much needed money and pays much needed taxes, advertises Pakistan, and is arguably the only thing in the country that is smoothly and successfully done at scale. Put it this way: if the rest of the country ran like the PSL, we wouldn't need to beg the IMF for handouts.

Meanwhile, in the red corner, we have, uh, literally the worst season in Pakistan's history as a Test nation.

Not winning a single Test out of eight matches against three teams that hadn't visited Pakistan since the turn of the century was... really not great. Throwing away the opportunity to reach the World Test Championship (WTC) final, kindly bequeathed by the scheduling gods - who gave us entirely winnable away series in this cycle (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies) and ensured that each of our tough series (Australia, England) fell at home - was an utter disaster.

Rare is the country that is a dominant powerhouse in one type of cricket and a total unmitigated joke in another

Some countries are good at cricket (Australia, England, India) and some countries are not so good (Zimbabwe, Netherlands), and some countries are in the middle (Sri Lanka, New Zealand). But rare is the country that is a dominant powerhouse in one type of cricket and a total unmitigated joke in another. But that's us. White ball princes, red ball dunces.

How and why did we get here?

Let's start big, at the structural level. Since the financial and governance takeover of world cricket by the Big 3, countries not named Australia, India, or England have found their Test schedules shrunk beyond recognition. Today, almost every series not involving one of the Big 3 is a two-Test series. Recently, big names from West Indies to South Africa to Sri Lanka have complained about the paucity of Tests on their schedule.

In terms of cricket finances, Pakistan is not as badly off as those other sides, but not as well off as the Big 3. We could, in theory, schedule slightly more Tests than we currently have on the books...

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