Veteran all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has been playing his best cricket over the past two years. He has completely transformed his T20 game and is currently one of the most important players of Pakistan’s T20 batting line-up.
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Former Pakistan captain and current commentator, Ramiz Raja, had expressed his views on Hafeez earlier this year, saying that the all-rounder should hang up his boots.
This did not sit well with Hafeez, who had said on numerous occasions that he will retire on his own will and has hinted at his retirement after competing in the T20 World Cup next year.
Journalist Saleem Khaliq spoke to Hafeez about his opinion on Raja’s statement.
Hafeez said that he acknowledges the fact that everyone in the world has the right to voice their opinion. He added that while he appreciates Ramiz Raja’s services as a cricketer for the national team, he holds severe reservations over Raja’s cricketing sense and awareness of the game.
“If you talk to my 12-year-old son, even his game awareness is better than Ramiz bhai’s,” Hafeez said.
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Hafeez went on to say that if Raja wants to say such things to spice up his YouTube channel, he cannot stop the commentator, and that he will continue to play cricket at the highest level for as long as he is fit and performing.
Hafeez has been a part of the T20I side of Pakistan and will be traveling with the squad today for Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand.
I think this controversial topic only exists in the subcontinent in other cricket playing nations they retire gracefully from the national teams but continue to play county cricket for their clubs which pays well so they don’t see an end to their careers and earning capacity plus play T20 in the world leagues. Here it’s different our club cricket is not strong enough so players tend to resist retirement plus English language is also a draw back so playing overseas limits their playing capacity in T20 overseas .Ramis Raja should let our players make up their own minds when to retire and just concentrate on extending his commentary skills .
I agree with Soomro Sahib.
Remember the time he was overlooked and was begging to give him one more chance …….shameless soul
It is an irony of faith with every authorative pakistani, Rameez should focus on commentating and let others do their work, such an act becomes a source of discouragement, not forgetting that Hafeez is a source of support for the batsmen to follow or in other words he can pull u out of hot water.
Hafeez has been doing surprizingly well in all his performances in past few months, I had also thought its time for him to go but he has proved to be otherwise he has played like a youngster with very vitalizing performance in most of the games he has fared in past few months.