Inzamam-ul-Haq slams Pakistan cricket officials over Hafeez ouster

PAKISTAN’S former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq on Monday (4) criticised the country’s cricket board for removing Mohammad Hafeez as team director due to recent poor results, asserting that it was unfair to “target” ex-players in administrative roles when officials were refusing to shoulder any responsibility for the side’s performance.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) last month parted ways with Hafeez after a 3-0 Test series defeat in Australia, followed by a 4-1 T20I series loss to New Zealand.

Hafeez’s contract, which was initially short-term, ended after the T20I series in New Zealand, following the sports ministry’s recommendation against a long-term agreement.

“Can someone explain the reasoning behind removing Muhammad Hafeez as team director, but retaining Wahab Riaz as chief selector after the Australian and New Zealand tours?” Inzamam said.

“Weren’t both appointed at same time and given same responsibilities? So why has only Hafeez been held accountable and not Riaz?” he asked.

The former cricket great, who resigned as chief selector in acrimonious circumstances during last year’s World Cup, also urged the PCB to start respecting players.

“The PCB chairman, no doubt, is a highly respectable position, but don’t former captains and stalwarts deserve the same amount of respect from the top board officials?” said Inzamam.

He alleged that during his dispute with the board over conflict of interest allegations, he was shown no respect by former PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf.

Mohammad Hafeez

“We had a meeting scheduled at the PCB offices after this story about me having a conflict of interest as chief selector broke out,” Inzamam recalled.

“I was sitting with (PCB officials) Salman Naseer and Aliya Rasheed waiting for the chairman to come.

“But he went to the academy and from there called Naseer and Aliya to meet him, and I was told to wait as he would not be seeing me. Only Aliya returned after a time and told me about the inquiry committee,” he added.

“I was hurt by this behaviour from the chairman. Every detail of agents and their companies who work with players are available with the ICC [International Cricket Council] and the PCB and it was not such a big deal. I told them I would resign and they can complete their inquiry,” Inzamam stated.

The former skipper said he was still waiting for the PCB to release findings of the inquiry committee which investigated his conflict of interest case.

“Pakistan cricket cannot be run in this manner. It is time the board officials also accepted responsibility for their actions,” he asserted.

Inzamam also said he never wanted to take over as chief selector before the Asia Cup last year, as the previous selection committee had already picked the squad.