Less than a week after being sacked as men’s team coach, Mohammad Hafeez has slammed former captain Babar Azam for the poor fitness culture in the Pakistan team. The former Pakistan all-rounder was sacked from his position following the team’s disastrous 4-1 loss to New Zealand in the T20I series. Hafeez had a four-year contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), but his contract was terminated and he later said on social media that he would reveal the real reason for Pakistan’s poor performance in international cricket.
Speaking on Pakistan’s sports channel A Sports, Hafeez shockingly revealed that when the team toured Australia, he was asked for a fitness report on all the players. said fitness was not a priority in checking players.
“When I went to Australia, I told the players to be careful about their fitness levels. I also asked the trainer about the fitness of the players. He said something shocking to me. “Six months ago, the captain (Babar Azam) and director of cricket (Mickey Arthur) told us to stop checking the fitness parameters of the players and let them play the way they want,” Hafeez said. Told.
Further, the veteran cricketer said that the players could not even complete a 2km trial run and it became clear that their fat levels made them completely unfit to play at the international level.
“When we tested the athletes for their fat levels, all of them had high skin folds, which for most of them was 1.5 times the limit.The athletes were not fit for health and some were unable to complete a 2km trial run. He added that the decision was “results going back six months and overrode the fitness standards that have been set. If that’s what fitness is like, we will be on the losing end.”
Pakistan had failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2023 ODI World Cup, which was held in India in October last year. After a disappointing season, Babar lost the captaincy as Pakistan made healthy reforms across formats in terms of captaincy. However, Pakistan’s fate remained unchanged, as they were whitewashed in the Test series in Australia in December and then lost the T20I series in New Zealand.
