Former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq has slammed the country's cricket board for sacking Mohammad Hafeez as Team Director due to recent poor results, saying that it is unfair to "target" ex-players in administrative roles when officials are refusing to shoulder any responsibility for the side's performance.
The PCB appointed Hafeez as team director following Pakistan’s abysmal display in the World Cup 2023. However, the decision didn’t yield a fruitful result as they suffered a 3-0 whitewash in the Test series Down Under and lost the five-T20I series 4-1 in New Zealand.
Last month, Hafeez’s tenure with the national team came to an end as the PCB decided against extending his contract.
"Can someone explain the reasoning behind removing Mohammad Hafeez as team director but retaining Wahab Riaz as chief selector after the Australian and New Zealand tours?" Inzamam said on a TV show.
"Weren't both appointed at same time and given same responsibilities so why has only Hafeez been held accountable and not Wahab Riaz?" he asked.
Inzamam, who steppe down as chief selector in acrimonious circumstances during the World Cup last year, also asked 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," he stated.
Inzamam claimed that during his dispute with the board over conflict of interest issue, he was not shown any respect by the former PCB chief Zaka Ashraf.
"We had a meeting scheduled at the PCB offices after this story about me having a conflict of interest as chief selector broke out.
"I was sitting with (PCB officials) Salman Naseer and Aliya Rasheed waiting for the chairman to come," he recalled.
"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.
Inzamam, who represented Pakistan in 120 Tests, 378 ODIs and 1 T20I, was left hurt by Ashraf's attitude.
“I was hurt by this behaviour from the Chairman. Every detail of agents and their companies who work with players are available with ICC and PCB and it was not such a big deal and I told them I would resign and they can complete their inquiry," Inzamam said.
The former captain said he was still waiting for the PCB to release findings of the inquiry committee which investigated into 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.
(With PTI Inputs)
