LAHORE: Former Pakistan cricket team captain Muhammad Hafeez on Thursday resigned as director of the national team.
Sources said Hafeez’s contract had expired on Dec 15. He applied for extension in contract which was not extended. Consequently, he has resigned from his office as director cricket.
According to some reports, he has been informed through board high-ups that his services would no more be required in near future.
Hafeez also could not get any positive response despite his endeavours to contact the persons concerned.
Hafeez has also received a message from Chief Executive Salman Naseer that the chairman is not interested to give him more time as director. He rather intends to hire foreign coaching staff with some novel ideas.
“The Pakistan Cricket Board extends heartfelt gratitude to Mohammad Hafeez, Director Pakistan men’s cricket team, for his invaluable contributions,” the PCB said, wishing him good luck and success in his future endeavours.
Former PCB management committee chairman Zaka Ashraf had appointed Hafeez as team director in November last year for New Zealand and Australia tours and was likely to get an extension under the previous setup.
However, the newly-appointed chairman Mohsin Naqvi had made it clear in his first media talk that he wanted to hire foreign coaches for the national team, which is probably why Hafeez chose to resign.
Earlier, it was also reported that the relationship between Hafeez and senior players was less than ideal during the tour of New Zealand.
Reportedly, the players were unhappy with the long meetings conducted by Hafeez as well as the latter’s stern approach to the management of the team.
Moreover, Hafeez was also reluctant to issue NOCs to contract-bound cricketers for franchise cricket, asking them to put Pakistan before the leagues.
Later, No Objection Certificates (NOCs) were issued to star cricketers, Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan, Azam Khan and others, for their participation in ILT20. However, when players asked for NOCs for the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), Hafeez hesitated, putting their contracts in jeopardy.
