Over the last week, Pakistan cricket has once again courted chaos after seven players, including Muhammad Rizwan, were released along with head coach Sarfraz Ahmed and assistant coach Umar Gul following the team’s loss against England in the second Test at Lord’s.

Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden, who has been the batting coach as well as a team mentor for Pakistan in the past, has said that nothing has changed in Pakistan cricket and that players are always under pressure.

“I really enjoy and enjoyed my time working with Pakistan. Nothing’s changed, though. You know, that is always the trouble. That’s not an environment, you know; a pressure cooker is an environment for the middle, not for all the other peripheral things that happen outside. And it’s just too difficult an environment to be consistent because this is the formula,” Hayden said on the Wisden Cricket podcast.

Hayden had worked with Pakistan ahead of the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup as batting coach. The Babar Azam-led team reached the semi-finals before they lost to Australia by five wickets. The following year, Hayden worked as a mentor with Pakistan for the ICC T20 World Cup, and the team reached the finals.

“Pakistan are always dark horses, because their natural talent is phenomenal. I mean, anyone who can see athletic ability can see that Pakistan has an abundance of it. The trouble is, it never gets focussed because it’s never allowed to get focussed. It’s always in chaos. They’re always standing on one toe, let alone two feet. So there’s no grounding. And that’s, you know, something that I did enjoy doing in the short time that I was with Pakistan. It’s just getting things back on an even keel and not so frantic. So it’s very difficult for them,” added Hayden.

Post the Lord’s loss, Pakistan dropped Muhammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Khurram Shahzad, Aamir Jamal and Muhammad Awais Jafar. Jamal and Jafar did not play in the first two Tests of the three-match series and were sent home without playing in the series.

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Hayden also said that only Pakistan are stopping themselves from regaining their world-beating status.

“Pakistan is that like the West Indies, who I specially mentioned, I would especially mention Pakistan as well, because you’ve got 350 million people in one country that adore cricket and yet every opportunity, cricket doesn’t allow cricket to get played. And that old saying, it’s just not cricket that is so important for this conversation with Pakistan. Because if you allow Pakistan and Pakistan allows Pakistan to just play freely and with trust, then they’ll take on anyone as simple as that because purely their athletic ability like the West Indies is supreme,” said Hayden.