Things are getting heated within Pakistan’s cricket community, with current and former players’ relationships strained due to the team’s poor performance on the international stage. After Pakistan was knocked out early from the ICC Champions Trophy, Mohammad Hafeez called out some older stars like Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, and Shoaib Akhtar, pointing out that they didn’t win any big trophies back in their day, thus not inspiring younger players. But after getting some heat for those comments, Hafeez is walking it back, claiming his words were twisted.
Hafeez had said during a show in Pakistan, I’m a big fan of the guys who played in the ’90s, but when you look at what they left behind, Pakistan didn’t get much. They didn’t win any ICC events; they lost the World Cups of ’96, ’99, and ’03. We got to one final in ’99 and got beat pretty bad.
Even though stars like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, and Inzamam-ul-Haq didn’t win any major ICC titles, many people still think they’re some of the best players the country has ever produced.
To clear things up, Hafeez said he wasn’t trying to trash anyone personally.
Some news outlets are making stuff up. We were talking about teams winning ICC events to inspire the next generation. I was just saying that even though Pakistan had amazing talent back then, they still couldn’t win ICC events (after the ’92 World Cup) in ’96, ’99, and ’03. I wasn’t trying to attack any of those players.
The criticism of Pakistan’s team has only gotten worse after their 9-wicket loss to New Zealand in the first T20I of the current 5-match series.
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