Mohammad Hafeez, former Pakistan T20I captain, lambasted team management after Pakistan's campaign in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026 concluded with a five-run win over Sri Lanka on Saturday.
However, the win proved to be hollow as Pakistan was eliminated from the race for the semis of the T20 World Cup. Pakistan needed to win the game against Sri Lanka in Pallekele by 64 runs or more, or chase the target in 13.4 over,s to have a better net run rate than New Zealand.
Thanks to 100 by Sahibzada Farhan and 84 by Fakhar Zaman, Pakistan made 212/8 in 20 overs. They needed to restrict Sri Lanka to 147, but the co-hosts made 207/6 thanks to a fifty by Pavan Rathnayake and 76* by captain Dasun Shanaka, as Pakistan won by only 5 runs.
After elimination, knives were out in TV studios for the team management, particularly coach Mike Hesson and captain Salman Ali Agha.
“I will sum it up as the end of a painful debacle. Right from the start, the way the Pakistan team was playing was incomprehensible to any cricket critic. But it kept going. I believe this World Cup has totally exposed the Pakistan think tank’s planning. Whatever policy the think tank created, and their decision-making process has been exposed.
The captaincy (of Agha) has been badly exposed; if you continue with someone who doesn’t even deserve a place in the team, you might see temporary benefits, but you will get stuck in the long run. Furthermore, if you look at the overall skill level of the players, everything has been laid bare before us—where do we stand in modern-day cricket? Where does our batting stand? Where do our bowlers stand?” Hafeez said on the show ‘Game On Hai’ on Tapmad entertainment.
Hafeez was also hugely critical of the Pakistan team management.
“When I sum everything up, I must say that the decision-makers need to think: is this how Pakistan cricket will run? As cricket fans, we have endured this same pain through four consecutive ICC tournaments—first in 2023, then 2024, 2025, and now 2026. You have evidence from four consecutive tournaments showing that things have gone significantly wrong. To fix it, decision-makers must make choices based on merit. If they don’t, this painful story won’t end.
“From what I understand of the current scenario, if you look at the players from the last four ICC events, most of them are the same. A few decision-makers changed, but the decisions made over the last two years have been inadequate for this sport. For me, this is painful. I am sure many of us feel the same way, but we must decide if we want to continue running Pakistan cricket like this.
“As I’ve said before, Pakistan’s [international] cricket and the PSL [Pakistan Super League] cannot run together like this. The PSL is a vibrant commercial option, but it isn’t everything. We have to save Pakistan cricket. If we don’t make better decisions for Pakistan cricket, we will only face more pain,” Hafeez added.
Sahibzada Farhan was the best batter for Pakistan, breaking the record by scoring two centuries in the T20 World Cup, becoming the first batter to do so, and also breaking Virat Kohli’s record of most runs in a single edition of the tournament.
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