‘We only play for money, India is the only team…’: Mohammad Hafeez reacts to ‘ICC giving favours to India’
Former Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez quashed the chatter around India getting an undue advantage over other teams in ICC Champions Trophy 2025 as all their matches, including the knockouts, were played at the same venue (Dubai International Stadium). Hafeez said it is a wrong notion that India receive favours from the ICC. In fact, they are the only team that plans to win ICC tournaments and backs it up with their performance, said the former all-rounder.
The Champions Trophy was played in a hybrid model because the Indian government did not allow its cricket team to travel to Pakistan for security reasons. After several rounds of meetings, it was finalised that hosting all of India’s matches, including the knockouts (if they qualify) in Dubai was the best possible way to go forward with the tournament. However, as the tournament progressed and India started to dominate other teams, the notion of venue advantage started doing the rounds. And it came from prominent former and current cricketers.
Hafeez said the priorities of different boards are different. Giving South Africa and Pakistan’s example, Hafeez said that because they are not financially strong enough to offer a huge sum to their players for international matches, they have to allow their players to take part in different franchise leagues even during a bilateral series.
“I went to South Africa in 2021, and they sent their players to the IPL. They are not a financially strong board. They want money. They played their C team against Pakistan. Later, they sent their players to the IPL even during a Test series against New Zealand. Then, when SA20 came, they treated it like a money-making machine. They don’t want to compromise with that. That is their policy,” Hafeez said on ‘Game on Hai’.
‘Pakistan got nothing from Champions Trophy apart from money’
The former Pakistan cricketer then added that PCB agreed to host multi-nation tournaments in a hybrid format primarily because of their need to earn money. Hafeez said Pakistan didn’t earn anything by hosting the Champions Trophy in a hybrid model apart from money. But that is not the case with India, which has a financially strong board that plans on winning tournaments.
“If you look at us, we agreed on a hybrid model twice. Hume kuch nahi mila hybrid model se, other than paise. Toh humne wo le liya Kuchh paise kama liye, baat khatam. Hamara that paisa, humne wo le liya. South Africa bhi. Lekin jo jeetne ke liye khel rahi wo hai India ki team (We didn’t earn anything apart from some money. We got what we wanted, which is money. South Africa, too.) The team that is playing to win is India. They plan to win ICC trophies. We talk a lot about them recovering favours. They are not getting any favours from anyone. Whatever they earn is because of the quality of cricket they are playing,” Hafeez added.
The unbeaten Indian side advanced to the Champions Trophy final unchallenged. They will meet New Zealand in the summit clash in Dubai on Sunday. Pakistan, the original hosts of the tournament, on the other hand, were knocked out from the group stage without winning a single match.
