Former Pakistan director of cricket Mickey Arthur has hit back at Mohammad Hafeez, who had replaced him in the position and was himself ousted recently.
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.
Meanwhile, Arthur, who has returned to his job as head coach of 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 posted on X.
Arthur and the entire Pakistan team coaching staff were removed with Mohammad Hafeez taking over the reins both as director of cricket and head coach with Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal being the bowling coach and spin consultant respectively.
However, under Hafeez’s guidance, Pakistan was whitewashed by Australia in the Test series and then they lost the five-T20I series to New Zealand 1-4.
Hafeez’s tenure was cut short following Pakistan’s below-par performance and the arrival of the new chairman.
