Sana Mir on Sexist Criticism: “Would You Say This to Men?”
Pakistan’s campaign at the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup ended with one win from five matches. What came with it was a wave of online abuse directed at female players that former captain Sana Mir described as something she has never seen directed at the men’s team.
“When the national men’s team doesn’t do well, does anyone say that the players would be better off making rotis in the kitchen?” she said in an interview to a Pakistani media outlet.
That is the point she is requesting to fellow ex cricketers to back and respect our girls.
What Sana Mir Actually Said
Mir spoke after Pakistan’s final group match against Netherlands on June 27. She made three separate arguments. They are worth treating separately rather than as one statement.
On double standards: “I see double standards while talking about the performances of the men’s and women’s teams. I don’t agree with the tone of the criticism. Yes, the team has not come up to the expectations. But just because it is the women’s team, why add a sexist tone to it?”
On AI-generated videos: Mir specifically condemned AI-generated content circulating on social media that mocked the women’s players and spread misinformation. She said the videos caused pain to the players’ families. This is a separate issue from performance criticism and she treated it as such.
On the talent pool: “It is true that the players know there is no competition for spots in the team and it does affect their mindset.” A lot of work is needed on expanding the domestic talent base and organising more tournaments.
The Australia Example Nobody Else Reported Properly
Mir raised the Australian men’s cricket team as a reference point for how a cricket board and its men’s team should behave toward their female counterparts.
In 2017, Australia’s male cricketers refused to sign new Cricket Australia contracts until the board agreed to a revenue-sharing model that included the women’s team. The men’s team effectively held up their own pay negotiations to ensure the women were included. It was a significant moment in cricket’s professional equality history.
Mir’s implicit comparison is direct. Pakistan’s men’s cricketers have not taken any equivalent public stance in support of the women’s team’s pay or facilities. The PCB central contract system we covered this month does not include a public women’s cricket equivalent.
The Category and Track structures announced by Mohsin Naqvi apply to the men’s programme. Women’s central contracts in Pakistan have historically been a fraction of the men’s in both value and number of contracted players.
Sana Mir did not spell all of this out in one sentence. She raised the Australia example and left the comparison for listeners to complete. This is the part that Indian and Pakistani news outlets mostly summarised past without stopping to explain.
Pakistan Women’s Achievements Mir Wants Remembered
Mir has not framed her criticism as a defence of poor performance. She acknowledged the team underperformed. Her point is about the manner of the criticism not the existence of it.
Pakistan women’s cricket has produced results that are genuinely significant. Pakistan beat India in 2012 in the first bilateral women’s cricket series between the two nations. They have beaten England.
They have beaten New Zealand. Mir herself was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2026, the first Pakistani woman to receive that honour.
These achievements happened with fewer resources, fewer domestic competitions, more societal resistance and smaller contracts than the men’s programme. Judging the output without acknowledging the input, as Mir put it, is the double standard she is describing.
What Everyone Reported and What Everyone Missed
Every major outlet ran a version of “Sana Mir slams sexist criticism.” NDTV, ThePrint, Deccan Herald. All essentially the same wire service report.
None of them connected three things that are directly linked:
The PCB’s new five-track contract structure, announced this month, does not include any public equivalent for the women’s programme.
The absence of a domestic women’s T20 league in Pakistan, which Mir flagged specifically as the reason “players know there is no competition for spots,” is directly connected to the funding and priority gap between men’s and women’s cricket.
Sana Mir’s “Australia comparison” only lands with full impact if you know the 2017 Cricket Australia contract dispute context, which most of Pakistan’s social media audience does not.
The performance criticism is legitimate. Four losses in five matches, never passing 130 in those four games, the same middle-order fragility in every match. That is a cricket failure. Mir is not arguing otherwise.
She is arguing that the manner of that criticism, gendered remarks, AI-generated mockery, suggestions that female athletes belong in domestic settings rather than professional sport, reflects a social problem that exists independently of the cricket problem. Both can be true at the same time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Sana Mir say about Pakistan women’s cricket criticism? Sana Mir said she sees double standards in how Pakistan’s men’s and women’s teams are criticised when they underperform. She specifically questioned why the women’s team faces remarks about domestic roles like making rotis when the men’s team, who have also failed in ICC tournaments, never receive the same treatment. She also condemned AI-generated videos mocking players and acknowledged the team needs a stronger domestic talent base.
Who is Sana Mir in Pakistan cricket? Sana Mir is a former Pakistan women’s cricket captain who played from 2005 to 2019 and led the team in multiple ICC tournaments. In 2026 she became the first Pakistani woman inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. She currently serves as a commentator on the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup broadcast.
What is the pay gap between Pakistan men’s and women’s cricketers? Pakistan’s PCB announced a new five-track central contract system in June 2026 for men’s cricketers. No equivalent public contract structure for women’s cricketers was announced alongside it. Pakistan women’s central contracts have historically been significantly lower in number and value than the men’s programme, with far fewer players receiving central contracts at any given time.
Did Sana Mir criticise the team’s performance? Yes. Mir acknowledged Pakistan did not meet expectations at the 2026 T20 World Cup, losing four of five group matches. She also specifically raised the need for more domestic tournaments and greater competition for squad places. Her criticism of the sexist tone was separate from and additional to her acknowledgment of the team’s poor results.
