Former Pakistan cricket team captain Mohammad Hafeez called the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ‘greedy’ and even accused them to “making deals” with players like Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim to include them in the squad for the T20 World Cup 2024. Following Pakistan’s 6-run loss against India in Group A on Sunday, Hafeez said that although players like Amir and Wasim never play in the domestic circuit, they are preferred for big tournaments in place of cricketers who perform consistently.
He even alleged that the main focus of players like Amir and Wasim is to play in franchise leagues around the world and they only play for the national side if there are no such competitions.
“They (PCB) brought them here out of greed, made deals with such players (Amir and Wasim) who have ruined Pakistan’s cricket. I was in the domestic circuit, but no one wants to play domestic cricket. It is because they were telling me that ‘any of us gets selected, we will take it.,” Hafeez said.
“When asked to play for Pakistan six months ago, they said they wanted to play in franchise leagues around the world. Since that no leagues are happening these days, they are playing in the World Cup. They are playing in the World Cup as if it is just another league,” he added.
Amir retired from international cricket in 2020 while Wasim bid farewell to the sport in 2023. However, both cricketers decided to make a comeback in 2024.
Coming to the match, Pakistan bundled out India for just 119 but a disappointing show from the batters meant that the Babar Azam-led side fell short of the target.
We bowled well. In the batting, lost back to back wickets and had too much dot balls. Tactics was simple to play normally. Just strike rotation and the odd boundary. But in that period we had too many dot balls. Can’t expect much from tailenders. Our mind was to utilise first six overs in batting. But one wicket down, and again we weren’t up to the mark in first six. Pitch looked decent. Ball was coming on nicely. It was a little bit slow, and some balls extra bounce. Have to win last two matches. Will sit and discuss our mistakes but looking forward to last two matches.
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