"I was not a yes-man and that has caused me damage" : Mohammad Hafeez

[MenInG]

Mohammad Hafeez speaking to Shoaib Akhtar


My own view is that I have been outspoken and that has caused me damage"

"Either I convince others with my view, or else I get convinced by others - that is my way of thinking from a long time"

"I was captain in 2012 in T20s and results were good but I was never media friendly, and I was not the favourite of the higher officials"

"I was not a Yes man and that has caused me damage - people don't understand logic in Pakistan"

"I'd like to thank my parents for the upbringing as they set guidelines for me that helped me later in my life, because as you know when you have success in professional life, there are things around you which are not right"

"If you have a temporary friend and one who offers you such big things then a red light should go off in your head" [talking about match fixing etc]

"I have always been careful and have never made myself an object of controversy - and those who were mentioned in a wrong way, I feel their lifestyles had big issues"

"It was my principled decision and is still the same that whoever plays for Pakistan and is unable to uphold the honour of Pakistan should never get a chance to feel that pride [of representing Pakistan] again"

"Those players are like my brothers and I do pray for them but what they did and besmirched the integrity of Pakistan, I was against that"

"I raised my voice in this regard but I was told in reply that they will play for Pakistan and if you wish to play as well, then you decide [what you want to do] and I was like really?"

"So I went home and took advice as I did not want to spend giving my positive energy for Pakistan so I continued along with all those players although that was wrong and I still say that is wrong and will never be fruitful for Pakistan"

"Bringing back any such player will never be fruitful for Pakistan"

"As cricketers we are weak - when its time to unite we cannot do that"

"This is why to date we have never had a Pakistan players' association"

[Khan12]

You are one of the biggest 'yes' man hence you played that much with a pathetic record.

As shameless as they come.

[CleverSir]

His own lackluster performances have left him damaged. This is just trying to find excuses.

[Mamoon]

He has always been an easy scapegoat for the fans in spite of performing better than some of the acclaimed fan favorites. It is completely unfair to drop him for the likes of Asif Ali.

He will be back soon and rightly so. He still has considerable mileage in Limited Overs cricket.

[Asif321]

Shows pcb policy towards fixers
Honest man being told you go away fixer is here to stay
Now Amir is a nothing bowler soon will turned out to be a league cricket specialist

[ads101]

He's been a very good servant for Pakistan post 2009, and I'm a fan of him but time to move on.

[Greenstorm]

He should join politics.

[Hawkeye]

Good.

However, he shouldn't really be lumped with Malik and Sarfraz.

He's a very utility player and a decent batsman still.

[Rana]

TBH he has not done justice to his talent as a batsman but the fact remains, the guy has played longer than he really should have. Needs to go gracefully unlike the many bitter ex players we have had.

[Pete Rose]

He was a yes man only when it came to facing quality teams outside the subcontinent.

[Down2Earth]

How many 38 year olds are currently playing international cricket?

[Bewal Express]

A guy who has had upto a decade longer than his performances have deserved.

[omairsiddiqui]

Only in Pakistan do the most mediocre of players get glorified.

[Amjid Javed]

The symbol of medocrity for 16 years when playing for pakistan, please stay retired.

[unemployedgm]

Mohammad Hafeez played for Pakistan on almost 350 occasions while maintaining the most average record. He is the poster boy of the death of merit. That said, I agree with him on fixing.

[ZamanFan]

The most pathetic player, original favourite of Inzamam ul Haq. If it was not for biased Inzamam we would've never even know beyond 2005 a player by name of Hafeez existed. Probably the only opener in history who remained in the team with a tailender average of 18.6.

Probably also the only player who is selected as a batsman but is used as an off spinner to bowl to left handers. And that too he was banned several times for months not to bowl as he had to chuck to obtain spin.

Mental midgets he and Shoaib Malik have had a free joyride at the expense of Pakistan national side due to their personal connections for 10+ years.

No matter how much this guy is hyped by paid media, they will always be regarded as a blot.

[MenInG]

His stand against inclusion of Amir was great until he decided to play himself in same team

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

Had utility as a bowler when the bent in his bowling arm was undiscovered.

Had utility as a batsman in pressure free situations in the sub continent.

Take away those conditions, and it's time to move on.

[Boiz Played Well]

“Either I convince others with my view, or else I get convinced by others - that is my way of thinking from a long time"


That just means you have no capacity to find middle ground with others who differ. It’s not the same being a yes man and walking out if you can’t find a compromise. So many ex-players have the Imran Khan ‘92 attitude with none of the talent.

[HasanA]

His stand against inclusion of Amir was great until he decided to play himself in same team

he addresses that in his interview with shoaib akhtar. he says he talked to his parents if he should quit the team and his parents convinced him to keep playing

[azimiqbal]

Agree with his point of view regarding tainted players , should never be allowed to play for Pakistan

[moghul]

He is one of the, or perhaps THE luckiest cricketer in Pakistan's history. An average cricket, a chucker and still able to have a long international career. He would have not made to BD or SL team , on merit.

[Mean&Green]

He is one of the, or perhaps THE luckiest cricketer in Pakistan's history. An average cricket, a chucker and still able to have a long international career. He would have not made to BD or SL team , on merit.

Relax bd or srilanka would take him with their eyes closed

[ask_analyse_act]

Just blabbering... prolonged his career as much as he wanted, adamant to open the inns where he is a sitting duck if ball swings even at 120kph. Had he bat lower down the order at 5 which would have benefit the team and his record.

So stubborn to think he is the most shrewd of all. The name professor given was for his talking which he took it way too seriously that whatever he thinks is smart

[hb787]

Only in Pakistan do the most mediocre of players get glorified.

saray mulk ka jo haal hai, same will be in its cricket too.

[BunnyRabbit]

Gets way much flak than he deserves. He is a useful player in LOI's. Can provide good 6-7 tight overs and can bat well most of the times. It's not that he was the weakest link in the lineup. He was pretty selfless in the WC19. Was always trying to up the momentum rather than taking time settling himself in.
Can be picked in T20is atm considering the lack of any useful batter from 3-5, but I guess time for ODI's is up for him now.

[MenInG]

Think he speaks too much - when he should really get on with it and work on his issues in cricket.

[Abdullah719]

Think he speaks too much - when he should really get on with it and work on his issues in cricket.

He could just retire instead and begin his post-cricketing career as a pundit

He does have a good cricketing brain and understanding of the game...

[angrypathan]

Nah mate you were just rubbish. The sad thing is we haven't managed to replace even his mediocrity, and there's a chance he could walk into our T20 team for the next series.

[Junaids]

Shows pcb policy towards fixers
Honest man being told you go away fixer is here to stay
Now Amir is a nothing bowler soon will turned out to be a league cricket specialist

Honest man?

Hafeez is a cheat and a fraud of a far worse level of severity than Salman Butt or Mohammad Amir.

Butt and Amir briefly fixed irrelevant aspects of games which affected neither results nor the careers of opponents.

Mohammad Hafeez chucked to obtain an unfair advantage in matches, and did not care that this damaged his opponents’ careers. And when he was tested he switched to a cleaner action, only to abandon it again at times in matches.

Mohammad Hafeez has multiple convictions for cheating, in the form of chucking. I consider him to be far more tainted than Asif, Amir and Butt: in Pakistan cricket my lack of respect for him is matched only by my lack of respect for serial cheats like Salim Malik and Danish Kaneria

[Hasan123]

Honest man?

Hafeez is a cheat and a fraud of a far worse level of severity than Salman Butt or Mohammad Amir.

Butt and Amir briefly fixed irrelevant aspects of games which affected neither results nor the careers of opponents.

Mohammad Hafeez chucked to obtain an unfair advantage in matches, and did not care that this damaged his opponents’ careers. And when he was tested he switched to a cleaner action, only to abandon it again at times in matches.

Mohammad Hafeez has multiple convictions for cheating, in the form of chucking. I consider him to be far more tainted than Asif, Amir and Butt: in Pakistan cricket my lack of respect for him is matched only by my lack of respect for serial cheats like Salim Malik and Danish Kaneria

Oh have a day off.

Stop sticking up for your favourites.

Fixing is the lowest of the low. Way worse than chucking. Also you have made claims of Amir and Butt being involved in fixing before the no ball scandal.

[Monsee]

Hafeez should be made to defend his career stats/achievements (if they can be called that lol) in this thread: http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/sh...f-Test-cricket!

Always a walking wicket when the ball even pretended to devite a fraction of an inch, while moving at anything above barely medium pace

[GreenKhan]

A mediocre player who’s record in ICC tournaments despite playing 6-7 of them is appalling.


People saying he should be picked instead of Asif . Not defending Asif or any one else for that matter, but after playing 50 one day matches he still only averaged 25 or even less . How he ended up playing for so long is a mystery .

He was the “backbone “ of our World Cup campaign and only managed an average of 30. Hopefully we can move on from him

[coy0607]

There is no question that Hafeez is extremely deluded about his international cricket career - but he also touches on a interesting point about being punished because he wasn't a yes man.

Compare him to Misbah, the unequivocal yes-man: Hafeez is arguably a better cricketer than Misbah, and started his international career at a much younger age - but still never gets to really captain the side, and other than a couple of years, is constantly in and out of the team.

Misbah on the other hand is given an extended run as captain in multiple formats, despite some pretty terrible results. And later goes on to become the first ever selector coach despite the severe lack of experience

[moghul]

Relax bd or srilanka would take him with their eyes closed

Yes, only with their eyes closed.

[ARK Rafay]

Couldn't fullfil the potential he had with the bat unfortunately. He admits it was his mistake.

[Gullycricket]

Both him and Shoiab are Berozgaar these days

[Blistering Barnacle]

Honest man?

Hafeez is a cheat and a fraud of a far worse level of severity than Salman Butt or Mohammad Amir.

Butt and Amir briefly fixed irrelevant aspects of games which affected neither results nor the careers of opponents.

Mohammad Hafeez chucked to obtain an unfair advantage in matches, and did not care that this damaged his opponents’ careers. And when he was tested he switched to a cleaner action, only to abandon it again at times in matches.

Mohammad Hafeez has multiple convictions for cheating, in the form of chucking. I consider him to be far more tainted than Asif, Amir and Butt: in Pakistan cricket my lack of respect for him is matched only by my lack of respect for serial cheats like Salim Malik and Danish Kaneria

Lol.

You're funny.

[Mirpur express]

Hahahahaha Yes man he is & tbh he always failed in the big ICC event games apart from that knock @CT17 final .. biggest par*** ever , held back so many better openers when he was the perfect No6 .. but the ego 🤦🏽*♂️

[MenInG]

More quotes from Part 2 of Akhtar video

"When I left the captaincy in 2014, a lot of people said that I took a decision in haste"

"The problem is that PCB was never behind me; in 2012 I was made captain of the T20 side, and the number 9th ranked team became number one ranked and at a time when I would have taken Misbah's position, there was a change in the Board and I was not in their 'liking'; They felt others could do a better job than Hafeez and I left the captaincy after 2014 and handed over to whoever could do this better but unfortunately, even this decision wasnt right"

"I have no regrets about this but I feel that had I continued as captain, I would have improved my performance as a leader

"Let me tell you personally, that after playing against Australia a few times in the last few years, I do not see that mindset and body language of old times" [This video done before recent T20I series vs Aus]

"But now that they have some of their better players back, I can see that they have a different mindset and that they showed in the Ashes"

"Australia is one place where a new player cannot perform well straightaway, you need time and you need that experience behind you"

"I dont care if Pakistan loses all their matches in Australia but what I want them to stare them in the eye and show that 2 teams [of equal stature] are fighting to win"

"I learnt a lot from Waqar Younis when he came as a coach but what he has to learn is that his time is over, and its time for the younger players to be given important - I hope he's learnt a lot"

"One thing I can say is that Babar's batting will not suffer [due to captaincy] as his mindset is so strong that he thinks very positively about his own game, and he knows all methods needed to score"

"To expect Babar to deliver results as captain in 3-6 months would be stupidity [bewaqoofi]"

[Snowflake]

Was quite surprised to him admitting that he was weak mentally which translated into his inconsistent and poor batting performances.

[Monsee]

There is no question that Hafeez is extremely deluded about his international cricket career - but he also touches on a interesting point about being punished because he wasn't a yes man.

Compare him to Misbah, the unequivocal yes-man: Hafeez is arguably a better cricketer than Misbah, and started his international career at a much younger age - but still never gets to really captain the side, and other than a couple of years, is constantly in and out of the team.

Misbah on the other hand is given an extended run as captain in multiple formats, despite some pretty terrible results. And later goes on to become the first ever selector coach despite the severe lack of experience

LOL, no words to describe the horror, pain, and shock after reading the above!

You have to be kidding me, as bad of a player Misbah was (acorrding to many), Hafeez is not in the same class as Hafeez, not by any stretch purely as a batsman in any of the 3 formats:

Almsot double the difference in average in Tests, in ODI and T20 the difference might even be bigger when matches were played outside Asia especially no where near UAE:

Misbah Test: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...;type=allround

Hafeez Test: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...;type=allround

[Monsee]

*Hafeez is not in the same class as Misbah!^^^

[moghul]

A very mediocre players was lucky to play so much cricket for Pakistan, he should be so much thankful to everyone whoever selected him him each time . Now at age 40, finally he is overlooked and he is complaining

[moghul]

LOL, no words to describe the horror, pain, and shock after reading the above!

You have to be kidding me, as bad of a player Misbah was (acorrding to many), Hafeez is not in the same class as Hafeez, not by any stretch purely as a batsman in any of the 3 formats:

Almsot double the difference in average in Tests, in ODI and T20 the difference might even be bigger when matches were played outside Asia especially no where near UAE:

Misbah Test: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...;type=allround

Hafeez Test: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...;type=allround

Misbah was bad but Hafeez was even worst at much lower class.

[coy0607]

LOL, no words to describe the horror, pain, and shock after reading the above!

You have to be kidding me, as bad of a player Misbah was (acorrding to many), Hafeez is not in the same class as Hafeez, not by any stretch purely as a batsman in any of the 3 formats:

Almsot double the difference in average in Tests, in ODI and T20 the difference might even be bigger when matches were played outside Asia especially no where near UAE:

Misbah Test: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...;type=allround

Hafeez Test: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...;type=allround

no need to be so horrified, at the very least it debatable who the better cricket is.

Yes, Misbah has a better average in all 3 formats, but Hafeez has better SR in each format. Hafeez and Misbah have the same number of test centuries even though Misbah player 30% more innings. Hafeez has 11 ODI centuries to Misbah's 0, and 10 T20 fifties to Misbah 3. This is to say nothing of the almost 250 international wickets Hafeez has to Misbah's 0

Not saying Hafeez is a world beater - he was a very average cricketer for the most part, but it is debatable who provided more value to Pakistan cricket on the field.
Despite that Misbah has been a darling of the PCB and Hafeez clearly hasn't

[BaankeJi]

Very immature comments. As if players are selected only on basis of being yes men.

[Monsee]

no need to be so horrified, at the very least it debatable who the better cricket is.

Yes, Misbah has a better average in all 3 formats, but Hafeez has better SR in each format. Hafeez and Misbah have the same number of test centuries even though Misbah player 30% more innings. Hafeez has 11 ODI centuries to Misbah's 0, and 10 T20 fifties to Misbah 3. This is to say nothing of the almost 250 international wickets Hafeez has to Misbah's 0

Not saying Hafeez is a world beater - he was a very average cricketer for the most part, but it is debatable who provided more value to Pakistan cricket on the field.
Despite that Misbah has been a darling of the PCB and Hafeez clearly hasn't

My filtering (when I compared their test records) was in tests only against quality opposition in only those countries outside UAE/Asia, none of what you mentioned has got anything to do with that because in those countries, I bet just like his half the average compared to Misbah, his SR is quite worse as well!

As for those 250 wickets vs zero, how many times did Misbah got pulled up for chucking or got a phainta or barely any success when a quality team was up against Pakistan?

Hafeez has been defined by most decent/good fast bowlers when the ball deviated even an inch while Misbah helped lift Pak from the depths of Match fixing to the top of the world (no matter how short that period was), if that is still nothing to light a candle to hafeez's achievements in being called lesser of a player; kindly list all those earth shatteing achievements that this thread did not unearth: http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/sh...f-Test-cricket!

[sshakir411]

Someone should tell this guy his career ended 5 years ago

[Asif321]

Honest man?

Hafeez is a cheat and a fraud of a far worse level of severity than Salman Butt or Mohammad Amir.

Butt and Amir briefly fixed irrelevant aspects of games which affected neither results nor the careers of opponents.

Mohammad Hafeez chucked to obtain an unfair advantage in matches, and did not care that this damaged his opponents’ careers. And when he was tested he switched to a cleaner action, only to abandon it again at times in matches.

Mohammad Hafeez has multiple convictions for cheating, in the form of chucking. I consider him to be far more tainted than Asif, Amir and Butt: in Pakistan cricket my lack of respect for him is matched only by my lack of respect for serial cheats like Salim Malik and Danish Kaneria

what was that fixing compared to chucking?

[moghul]

what was that fixing compared to chucking?

In both cases, players committed illegal activity , cheating for their personal benefit . Hafeez was banned multiple times and committed the same again and again.

[Slog]

The most pathetic player, original favourite of Inzamam ul Haq. If it was not for biased Inzamam we would've never even know beyond 2005 a player by name of Hafeez existed.

Tbf he played less than a third of matches Inzi captained in

[Hitman]

The very fact that he survived in the Pak team for so long with so little ability tells me he was the biggest yes-man in the team.