Mohammad Hafeez hits out Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi to retain his job as Pakistan Team Director
The director of the Pakistan national cricket team Mohammad Hafeez, has blamed his players’ lack of focus on their upcoming franchise assignments following the recent shambolic defeats during their away season. The Men in Green suffered a whitewash against Australia in the three-match Test series during December and January which was followed by a humiliating 1-4 defeat in the T20I series against New Zealand.
It has been a diabolical start for Mohammad Hafeez as well as the newly appointed skippers Shan Masood and Shaheen Shah Afridi after Babar Azam submitted his resignation as the all-format captain after a poor World Cup campaign in 2023. It has been reported that the Players are left frustrated with Hafeez’s tedious approach, and are displeased with the proceedings outside the ground either.
Mohammad Hafeez Meets Interim Chairman Of The Pakistan Cricket Board Regarding The Issue
The decision to demote Babar Azam to No.3 and promote Saim Ayub as an opener backfired for Pakistan including some newly laid out plans. According to a report by Geo TV, Mohammad Hafeez met acting PCB Chairman Shah Khawar and spoke about the players’ lack of focus in recent outings. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have shown some rigidness in issuing the NOC to the players for participating in different Franchise T20 leagues.
The Pakistani players are only allowed to play in two overseas franchise leagues apart from the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Recently, the likes of Mohammad Haris and Fakhar Zaman did not receive NOC from the PCB to take part in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Meanwhile, senior players like Babar Azam and Shaheen Shah Afridi are currently involved in franchise T20 leagues.
As a result, many players are currently leaving their central contracts in order to participate in these cash-rich overseas T20 Leagues without any restriction. The Pakistan team is currently struggling with everything from management to the performance of the players. The current situation does not please anyone in Pakistan cricket as players are unhappy because of the poor management and the management is not happy with the performance of the Team.
Mohammed Hafeez and Wahab Riaz were handed the responsibility of team director and chief selector respectively following Pakistan’s humiliating exit from the 2023 ODI World Cup in India. The former skipper was in charge of the team for the tour of Australia and New Zealand, after Mickey Arthur and Grant Bradburn handed in their resignations.
