LAHORE: Veteran all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez said on Sunday that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) must bridge communication gap with senior players so that the players could decide their futures in a better way.

In a media interaction at the Gaddafi stadium, he endorsed the idea that the senior players should be informed properly whether they part of team management’s future plans or not, adding that he had spoken to the PCB top management to get clarity on his status but he did not get any response and remained in the limbo for months.

“It would be easier for the players if a communication policy is framed on matters of selection or non-selection of senior players,” observed Hafeez, who returned to the Pakistan Twenty20 team after a long game for the current series against Bangladesh.

Hafeez scored a half-century on Saturday to help Pakistan seal the three-match series 2-0, with the final Twenty20 to be played on Monday.

“I’m delighted to be able to make a comeback in the series and what’s pleased me most is that I could play a match-winning knock yesterday,” he said.

Hafeez said he always stayed positive in highs and lows of his career and did not allow despondency overcome him, and this approach had helped his career, adding that his pragmatic mindset had enabled him to make a comeback in the team.

“I kept myself match-fit and waited patiently for a recall,” he said. “Most importantly, I didn’t let my thought-process go wild, and I’m glad my persistence had bore fruit.”

When asked about his poor performances on foreign soil, Hafeez disagreed, saying he had “scored most of his runs abroad as he did not play any cricket in Pakistan during the last decade”.

He was optimistic that he would clear his bowling test to be held later this month, adding that he had accepted the bowling ban by the ECB despite his reservations.

Hafeez said he hoped better pitches would be laid for the upcoming series in the country, saying that those for the first two Twenty20s against Bangladesh were “below-par”.

Pakistan went into the series with a largely inexperienced side with Hafeez and Shoaib Malik the only two veterans in the side. And Hafeez said there was a lot of work to be done for the young players to become match-winners.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2020