Former Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Hafeez did not hold back as he slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the way they have been managing the ICC World Cup 2023.
Hafeez, 42, who represented Pakistan in 392 international matches, believed that one cannot make big decisions with shallow-minded thinking.
“We have seen the overall World Cup in just four days, till now, I have seen poor organising and poor planning from the organisers,” Hafeez said on a local sports show.
“The second biggest issue of this World Cup is the poor response from the crowd. When you are hosting a global event, then you have to make decisions globally [on a bigger scale]. You cannot make big decisions with a small small-minded approach.”
The 42-year-old then went to discuss one of the hottest topics of this World Cup, Dharamshala’s outfield, which gave Afghanistan an injury scare as their key spinner, Mujeeb ur Rehman, was running towards the boundary line and as he attempted a dive to stop the ball, his knee got stuck in the surface but luckily, he did not get injured.
Hafeez believed that the outfield of the HPCA Stadium is a big question mark as it is not safe for the players.
“No one has talked about it but Dharamshala’s outfield is a big question mark. It’s not safe for the players,” he added.
It is worth mentioning that the World Cup started four days ago and the Pakistani fans and journalists are yet to receive their Indian visas, Hafeez also weighed in on this issue.
“It does not matter from where they are, fans of every single team should get visas. If you can’t deal this [an event as big as the World Cup] in a global way, then its impact will not be global,” he concluded.
- Mohammad Hafeez
