(Cricket news) Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has retired from international cricket, ending his 18 year old long career. He will continue to play and be available to play franchise cricket. The Pakistani player has been a mainstay in the team for the last 10 years in all formats of the game for Pakistan. The 41 year old will forever be regarded as a Pakistani legend having captained his team in all formats.
Hafeez made his international debut in 2003 against Zimbabwe in an ODI and played his last international game against Australia in the T20 World Cup semifinal that his side lost. He initially had announced that the 2020 T20 World Cup would be his last international tournament , but the postponement of the tournament due to COVID-19 extended his stay with the side. He’s ending his career having played 55 Tests, 218 ODIs and 119 T20Is and scroing 12,780 runs across formats and picking up 253 wickets.
Hafeez had retired from Test cricket in 2018 only and then he was overlooked for ODIs after the 2019 with his last game coming against Bangladesh at the World Cup. Hafeez has the highest number of T20 World Cup appearances for any player having played in the all the T20 Worlds cups barring the 2009 T20 World Cup which they won, having led Pakistan to the semifinal in the 2012 World T20. He also led the side in 2014 when Pakistan were knocked out in the group stage. As captain in T20Is his record stood at 18 wins in 29 games with 11 losses. He finished with 32 man of the match awards which is the fourth-highest among Pakistan players in all international cricket, with only Shahid Afridi (43), Wasim Akram (39) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (33) having more than him. Hafeez also earned nine Player-of-the-Series awards across formats which is most for any Pakistani player.
"Today I say goodbye to international cricket with pride and satisfaction," Hafeez said. "In fact, I have earned and accomplished more than I had initially envisaged and for that, I am thankful to all my fellow cricketers, captains, support staff and the Pakistan Cricket Board who helped me out during my career.
"I am extremely fortunate, lucky and proud to have been considered worthy of donning the national kit with the Pakistan emblem for 18 years. My country and my team have always been at my forefront and therefore, every time I stepped onto the field, I tried to raise their profile and image by playing hard and tough but within the rich traditions of the spirit of cricket.
"When you have a professional career as long as mine, you're bound to have your share of highs and lows, and I was no different. Results apart, I can say with conviction that I had more highs as I had the privilege of playing with and against some of the finest exponents of the bat and the ball of my era."
Ramiz Raja, the PCB chairman, was one of the people who had asked Hafeez and Malik to "retire gracefully". Asked if his decision was dictated by the PCB, Hafeez said, "The decision is what my heart told me and not driven by any critics. For me, my critics had already started [criticising] since 2003 and people thought I wasn't a good player. I do respect their opinion and I have always respected them. I by no means wanted to turn my beautiful, positive journey into a negative one, that's why I am here, at the PCB [office, at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium], where I started my international cricket. And [am] ending it here."
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"Hafeez has been a wholehearted cricketer who worked tirelessly at his game to have a long and fruitful career," said PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja. "His game evolved with time, adjusting to different formats quite intelligently. Later in his career, he became a T20 specialist, where he was never out of touch with modern demands of this testing format. His batsmanship took a sprightly turn, nailing sixes almost at will.
