Former Pakistan Team Director Muhammad Hafeez revealed that former Captain Babar Azam, Team Director Mickey Arthur, and Head Coach Grant Bradburn had told the team Fitness Trainer 6 months ago that fitness isn’t the priority at the moment and just let the boys play freely.
Muhammad Hafeez said, “6 months before I was appointed as team director, Babar Azam, and the coaching staff had decided that fitness is not important and the players should be given a free role to play irrespective of their fitness and that’s what they told the fitness trainer of the Pakistan team”
He expressed his concerns that in modern-day cricket fitness is the most crucial thing and the national team was ignoring that aspect for the last 6 months, stating it as a sign of incompetency.
“When I arrived as team director the fitness told me that the fat level and skin fold of the players who were playing test cricket increased two times more than it was 6 months ago and some of the players could not even complete the 2-kilometer trial run,” said the former Pakistan captain.
The ex-captain recently stepped down from his position as de facto head coach for two months and had to take the decision after a change of chairmanship in the Pakistan Cricket Board after Zaka Ashraf was replaced by Mohsin Naqvi. The Professor has now resumed his duties as a TV cricket analyst.