Pakistan’s newly installed Twenty20 skipper Mohammad Hafeez Thursday asked the teammates to refrain from drawing into any controversy and develop an atmosphere trust and goodwill in the team ranks. Talking to journalists here during the camp training at the Gaddafi Satdium, Hafeez said that team effort, trust and a good environment would be necessary for any team’s progress and they have to maintain such an atmosphere among themselves before they leave for the next month’s tour of Sri Lanka. The talented team often makes headlines over rows between the players and a volatile dressing room atmosphere, but Hafeez said he would continue the good example set by Misbah-ul Haq. Misbah, dropped from the Twenty20 squad but retained as one-day and Test captain for the Sri Lankan tour, is credited with uniting the team after a 2010 spot-fixing sandal saw Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer banned and jailed.
“It’s not a team of any individual and we all trust each other and I think the way Misbah has settled the atmosphere of the team — you will see that this tour will be very positive,” Hafeez told reporters. According to a foreign wire news agency, Hafeez also faces the challenge of leading a team which has two former captains in Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi, often difficult for the incumbent skipper. “What I have discussed with T20 players is that I am trying to give them full confidence, unfortunately after one or two performances we start thinking that a player does not deserve to have a place in the team,” he said. “I will try to make a good environment for them in the dressing room and give players, like Malik and Khalid (Latif) trust.” Pakistan opens the tour with a Twenty20 in Hambantota on June 1. The two Twenty20 matches will be followed by five one-day and three Tests.
Hafeez agreed his team were short on Twenty20 practice, noting that players were missing out on the ongoing Indian Premier League. Pakistani players featured in the inaugural IPL in 2008 but have since not been allowed to play as relations between the arch-rivals nosedived after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which India blamed on militants based across the border.
Hafeez said the training camp meant players were well drilled. “The whole team is focused, practice sessions are going well and we are trying to bring ourselves into an international mould and we will try to bring in good results on the tour,” he said.
