'Was Never Personal Criticism..': Mohammad Hafeez Explains His '90s Players' Remark

'Was Never Personal Criticism..': Mohammad Hafeez Explains His '90s Players' Remark

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Last Updated: March 18, 2025, 08:06 IST

The Mohammad Rizwan-led team was massively criticised after Pakistan scripted a winless campaign in the Champions Trophy.

Mohammad Hafeez takes part in a warm up session ahead of the fifth and final T20I (Picture credit: AFP)

Former Pakistan allrounder Mohammad Hafeez, who had copped a lot of criticism after saying that his predecessors didn’t leave any legacy for the country’s cricket, has said that media houses have fabricated the actual statement. He never attacked any former cricketer personally.

Hafeez‘s statement came after Pakistan’s Champions Trophy debacle. They lost their first two group games to New Zealand and arch-rivals India to be eliminated from the tournament, and a washed-out match against Bangladesh didn’t help their cause either.

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Amidst the harsh criticism, Hafeez took to social media on Monday to post a clarification note, explaining that his statement wasn’t a personal attack on any player but was a mere attempt at highlighting that Pakistan, with all the wealth of talent during the 1990s, managed to win just one ICC tournament.

“Some of the media houses are fabricating the actual content. The context of the discussion was all about Teams winning ICC events to inspire coming generations," Hafeez tweeted on Monday night.

Some of the media houses are fabricating the actual content. Context of discussion was all about Teams winning ICC events to inspire coming generations. Therefore I explained how the greats of game from Pakistan with all the cricket talent they have couldn’t win ICC events (post…— Mohammad Hafeez (@MHafeez22) March 17, 2025

Pakistan cricket has seen an unreal decline over the past three years. Since finishing as runners-up in the 2022 T20 World Cup, their performance in ICC tournaments has been dismal.

Pakistan finished just outside the top four in the 2023 ODI World Cup, winning just four of their nine league-stage games. At the T20 World Cup last year, just seven months after the ODI World Cup disappointment, Pakistan lost their group stage matches to the USA and India and couldn’t even qualify for the Super 8 stage.

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Pakistan were next whitewashed at Bangladesh’s hands in a home Test series and to top it all, made a group-stage exit from the Champions Trophy, unable to show any fight in the two matches they played.

Pakistan are currently playing a five-match T20I series against New Zealand and in the first game, were bowled out for just 91 batting first.

First Published: March 18, 2025, 08:06 IST

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