Mohammad Hafeez has made shocking claims on the attitude of Pakistan players after stepping down as the Director of Cricket role. His tenure didn't last for more than three three months after taking over post the World Cup debacle last year with new PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi taking the charge. Now Hafeez has hit out .against the national team just days after his departure from the position.
Speaking on Pakistani sports channel - A Sports - Hafeez has said that the Pakistan players do not have the fitness standard to play international cricket. In a startling revelation, Hafeez has said that the Pakistan cricketers have not focused on their fitness in the last six months and are not fit to compete in international cricket. “When we went to Australia, I told the players to take care of their fitness levels. I also asked the trainer about the fitness of the players. He told me a shocking thing that six months ago captain (Babar Azam) and Director of Cricket (Mickey Arthur) told me to stop checking the players on the fitness parameters and let them play the way they want," Mohammad Hafeez said on A Sports. Pakistan have been poor in the international circuit since the ODI World Cup 2023. Pakistan were not able to make it to the semi-final spots in the tournament and as a result, Babar Azam and Mickey Arthur were sacked from their positions.
Under the captaincy of Shan Masood (Test) and Shaheen Afridi (T20I), Pakistan did not fare any better and lost series in Australia and New Zealand. Hafeez gave his reasoning behind the poor outings and said that some of the players would not be able to complete a 2-kilometer run, if they were asked to. "When the fat levels of the players were checked, the skin fold of all of them was high - for most players it was 1.5 times the limit. They were unfit and some of them couldn’t complete a 2 KM trial run. The decision taken 6 months back overruled the set criteria for fitness. You will suffer defeats if the fitness is like that,” Mohammad Hafeez added on the show. The Men in Green have had a terrible time in the recent past, having unsatisfactory performances at the Asia Cup and the 50-over World Cup. This was followed by a Test series wash against Australia under the leadership of Shan Masood, who took over the captaincy duties after PCB's decision to take the load off Babar Azam. More recently, the team also lost the T20I series with a harsh 4-1 margin.
