Is Mohsin Naqvi a micromanager? Shahid Afridi reveals surprising truth about PCB setup

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has sparked discussion around leadership style in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), offering a candid assessment of current chairman Mohsin Naqvi and how he manages his team.

Speaking on Naqvi’s performance so far, Afridi suggested that the PCB chief has taken a noticeably different approach compared to traditional, highly centralised leadership styles often seen in cricket administration.

“Mohsin Naqvi so far so good,” Afridi said, adding that the PCB chairman has built a team and assigned them full responsibility for their work.

According to Afridi, the most notable aspect of Naqvi’s leadership is his hands-off approach in day-to-day operations.

“He has hired a team which he has given full responsibility, and the good thing about him is that he does not interfere in their work,” Afridi noted, while adding that accountability still remains central to the system.

“He demands results for sure.”

Afridi then used the opportunity to reflect more broadly on how organisations should function, suggesting that senior leadership should focus on building strong teams rather than personally executing every task.

“I think seniors should not do work themselves, they should have strong teams,” he said.

His remarks effectively highlight a management philosophy that leans away from micromanagement and toward delegation, where authority is distributed but performance expectations remain high.

While Afridi did not directly frame it as criticism, his comments open up a wider conversation about how cricket boards operate — particularly whether success comes from tight control or from trusting specialists to deliver results independently.

In Naqvi’s case, Afridi’s assessment paints a picture of a chairman who prefers structure over interference, but still keeps pressure firmly on outcomes.

For Pakistani cricket observers, the bigger question now is whether this balance between autonomy and accountability will translate into consistency on and off the field.