Former Pakistan’s Director of Cricket, Mickey Arthur, gave a brutal reality check to Mohammad Hafeez for blaming him and Babar Azam after the team’s debacle in Australia and New Zealand. Hafeez, who was Pakistan’s interim coach, had revealed that Azam and Arthur stopped the fitness test of players six months ago, which made all the players unfit.
“When we went to Australia, I asked about the players’ fitness. He told me that Babar and Arthur had said there would be no fitness test for the players and that they would be allowed to play however they wanted.
“The players in Australia were unfit, with fat levels exceeding the allowed limit. Some of them couldn’t complete a 2 KM run. If you are not fit, you will suffer defeats like we experienced in Australia,” Mohammad Hafeez said on Cricket Show The Pavilion.
Arthur, who was returned to Derbyshire after ending his association with the Pakistan Cricket Board, called Hafeez a disaster.
“True leadership is about accepting responsibility and meeting the challenge head-on! Sadly, the easy option is to be a disaster and then blame, complain and deflect,” Mickey Arthur writes on X.
Australia defeated Pakistan by a margin of 3-0 in the three-match Test series, while New Zealand thumped the Men in Green in T20Is. The margin was 1-4 in favour of the Kiwis.
Hafeez joined PCB after the ICC World Cup 2023 in India. Pakistan failed to qualify for the semis, and Babar resigned as captain across formats.
Hafeez, hired as a Director of Cricket, was given additional responsibility for coaching the side by the then PCB chairman, Zaka Ashraf.
However, Hafeez’s tenure was cut short following Pakistan’s below-par performance and the arrival of the new chairman. The legendary all-rounder had threatened to expose players after leaving the organization.