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Hafeez Blames Shaheen Afridi, Babar Azam, Shan Masood & Co. For Horrific Recent Tours

image-lru6blssMohammad Hafeez [X.com]

Mohammad Hafeez, the Pakistan team director and head coach, has blamed the players led by skippers Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi-led Test and T20I outfits for the senior national side's horrific showings in Australia and New Zealand, the Pakistan media reported on Thursday (January 25). 

Pakistan's victory in the final T20I against the BlackCaps in Christchurch on January 21 helped them avoid a disastrous clean slate for the trip, where they suffered another Test series whitewash in Australia and lost the T20I series 4-1 to the Kiwis. 

According to the Pakistan-based 'Geo TV', Hafeez met Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) new acting chairman Shah Khawar and COO Salman Naseem and discussed the series of defeats that laid bare the team's problems at the international stage. 


Hafeez Blames Players For Poor Trans-Tasman Tour 

The 43-year-old Hafeez is alleged to have blamed the cricketers for their consecutive poor showings versus the Aussies and their Kiwi counterparts. 

For the former skipper, "the players lacked focus on the game, as their primary attention was on participating in the ongoing franchise T20 leagues," reported Geo TV. 

Pakistan's angst against certain names prioritising the domestic league stints away from national duties attained controversial proportions ahead of the Test series Down Under when pacer Haris Rauf was criticised for opting out of the assignment to continue with his Big Bash League (BBL) stint. 

Without Rauf, and injured Naseem Shah, Pakistan had an inexperienced pace attack trying to match up to the quality and depth of Australia's reputed trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. 

The Asian giants were simply outclassed to another 3-0 series loss by the Aussies in their den and looked set for a similar fate in New Zealand before the Kiwis suffered an unexpected collapse in the Christchurch T20I.