Former Pakistan director of cricket, Mohammad Hafeez put huge claims on the former team skipper Babar Azam and former team’s director of cricket Mickey Arthur regarding the poor fitness level of the players within the team.
Hafeez was appointed as the director of cricket just a few months back after the 2023 ODI World Cup. He was appointed for 4 years tenure, but before the end of his tenure he was removed from the post after the team lost back to back series. First they lost against Australia and then against New Zealand where they lost the series by 4-1.
In a recent interview in A Sports, he revealed that Babar and Arthur had stopped checking the fitness levels of the players and allowed them to play as their respective conditions and no fitness level should be implemented.
He further added that during the Australia series he took trial for the players to run 2 KM in which most of the players were unable to run 1.5 KM. He was also in the spotlight during that series when some tension was going between him and the senior players.
He said,
“When we went to Australia, I told the players to take care of their fitness levels. I also asked the trainer about the fitness of the players. He told me a shocking thing that six months ago captain (Babar Azam) and Director of Cricket (Arthur) told me to stop checking the players on the fitness parameters and let them play the way they want.
When the fat levels of the players were checked, the skin fold of all of them was high – for most players it was 1.5 times the limit. They were unfit and some of them couldn’t complete a 2 KM trail run. The decision taken 6 months back overruled the set criteria for fitness. You will suffer defeats if your fitness is like that.”