Mohammad Hafeez resigns as T20 captain

LAHORE  – Pakistan cricket team captain Mohammad Hafeez stepped down as T20 captain, while accepting the responsibility of defeat in T20 World Cup. Hafeez also resigned as vice captain of test and One Day International (ODI) cricket, Dunya News reported.
After meeting Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi here on Thursday, Hafeez said while addressing the media along with coach Moin Khan that he has offered the resignation by himself, adding that he accepts full responsibility of the T20 World Cup defeat.
He admitted that players’ performance was not up to the mark in the last match.

                                “We played very bad game” he said.
         “This is why we lost a crucial match against West Indies.”

Hafeez said that he himself made the decision to step down without any coercion, adding that he would accept the decision PCB will make about him.
Coach Moin Khan’s contract with PCB also ended. He said that he will accept whatever PCB Chairman decides about renewal of contract.
Khan said that Pakistan performed better than any other team adding that the team was ousted of the World Cup due to the poor performance in the last match.
He further said that the media was praising the performances of these players before the match, and that the same media is now criticizing the team and management.
Media has started terming the same players as ‘zero’ who were earlier termed as ‘hero’, he said.
It merits mentioning here that Mohammad Hafeez had apologised to fans for not doing better in the key game against West Indies which defeated them by 84 runs in Dhaka and reached semi finals of the World T20.
It was the first time that Pakistan, finalists in the inaugural World T20 in 2007 and champions in 2009, failed to reach the knock-out rounds in the five editions of the tournament.
“I must thank our fans for their support and apologise for letting them down,” he said.
“This was obviously not our best performance, but we had the game in control at the start.”
“All credit to the West Indies for taking the game away from us. Those four final overs cost us dearly and then we panicked at the start of our chase. It became a very difficult target to chase,” said the Pakistani captain.

“Our aim was to get to at least 135-140 with the start we got but the self-belief we had, the form and power that we have, the momentum (being) with us, there was chance to be positive and get 160.”
“In the last four overs, even our best bowlers Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul did not get their basics right and conceded too many runs in the end... When our chase started, we did not get any momentum, playing shots which were not there,” said Hafeez.