Mohammad Hafeez And Pakistan Players Involved In Massive Dressing Room Fight

Former Pakistan batter Mohammad Hafeez who is currently serving as the team director of the Pakistan National team is reportedly causing anger and frustration within the players’ dressing room as reports emerged on Monday morning that Hafeez is reportedly denying NOCs (No Objection certificates) to some of the senior players to go on and participate in the Bangladesh Premier League which starts from January 19.

Ever since Mohammad Hafeez took over as the team director role, he has been very outspoken about his plans to revive the Asian giants. He took office back in November after Pakistan’s humiliating exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 from the group stages.

His arrival as the team director led to many changes in the Pakistan management with many former cricketers returning to the National team for coaching. It also led to the dismissal of Mickey Arthur as the head coach with his entire entourage also receiving the axe.

Babar Azam too resigned from captaincy after it and different captains were appointed for all the formats. Mohammad Hafeez’s first major assignment came in the form of a 3-match Test series in Australia which they ended up losing by 3-0 despite Hafeez claiming that Pakistan were there not just to compete but to win.

Currently, the Green army is 2-0 down in the 5-match T20I series in New Zealand but to make matters worse, the local media of Pakistan are claiming that some of its senior players are unhappy with the authoritative nature of Hafeez who has threatened a few players to put an end to their national contract.

It all sparked after players like Shaheen Afridi, Azam Khan, and Shadab Khan applied for NOCs to play in the 2nd edition of International League T20 which was granted by PCB. But when some of the prominent names in the team applied for the NOC to play in the Bangladesh Premier League, Hafeez threatened them to put out of the National team.

Senior Pakistan Players Unhappy Due to Mohammad Hafeez’s Lengthy Team Talks

Moreover, some of the players are also unhappy with the lengthy team talks led by Mohammad Hafeez, which is reportedly causing major trouble within the dressing room and causing an unhealthy team environment. It is being said that the matter is in its early days and it will catch heat in the upcoming days.

This issue might further deplete Pakistan’s performance on the field who are anyways in a bad position. They are yet to win a single game in competitive cricket since their World Cup group-stage match against New Zealand. After enduring a whitewash in the Test series in Australia, Pakistan’s last T20I series before the T20 World Cup in June is not going as planned either.

After losing the 1st T20 in Eden Park by 46 runs, the Men in Green failed to chase down 194 and ended up losing by 21 runs yesterday at Seddon Park in Hamilton. The 3rd T20I is scheduled to take place 2 days later on January 17th in Dunedin but it will be interesting to see how Pakistan responds in the series after back-to-back losses and especially after the Mohammad Hafeez incident has been brought to the fore.