Mohammad Hafeez trashes ‘legacy’ of Pakistan’s ’90s greats, triggers awkward TV studio exchange with Shoaib Akhtar

The 2025 Champions Trophy was the first tournament that Pakistan were hosting in nearly three decades but the hosts ended up having a rather disastrous campaign, the fallout of which has continued to roll on in the days since their last match. Former all-rounder and ex-head coach Mohammad Hafeez has now questioned the legacy left behind by the star-studded Pakistan teams of the 1990s as they failed to win a number of ICC tournaments in their time. Fast bowling great Shoaib Akhtar was often a part of the side and was part of the panel in which Hafeez was speaking and the comments led to a rather interesting exchange between the two former teammates.

“I am a huge fan of those who played in the 1990s but when it comes to legacy, they left nothing for Pakistan. They didn’t win an ICC event – they lost the (World Cups of) 1996, 1999 and 2003. We reached one final (in the 1999 World Cup) and lost that badly,” said Hafeez on OutSide Edge Live, with Akhtar, Shoaib Malik and Sana Mir with him in the panel.

“As stars, as players, they were the mega superstars. But then they couldn’t inspire us by winning an ICC event. Then came a difficult period that we had to go through and then in 2007 we lost the final (of the T20 World Cup). In 2009 we won under Younis Khan’s captaincy and so there was an inspiration for the next generation. Then unfortunately a bad incident happened with Pakistan cricket and we have still not been able to recover from that. Then we won the 2017 Champions Trophy, that was a huge source of inspiration. People idolise Babar Azam today and that is because even if he didn’t play a big hand in that event, he was there.

“So that thing about winning ICC events, this the superstars of the 1990s couldn’t do, with all due respect to their talents,” he said.

Malik and Sana Mir then spoke which stopped Hafeez and everyone in the studio can be seen smiling and laughing, including Akhtar. The latter then stated that Pakistan’s vastly superior head-to-head against arch-rivals India in ODI cricket is because of the victories that his side enjoyed in the 1990s. “These 73 one-dayers that Pakistan won against India, it is us who won it,” said Shoaib.

“No doubt, and there has been a very strong legacy since the time of Imran Khan. There was some great cricket played during their time as well,” said after that to which Shoaib replied: “No you can’t cover up now, this video has been made already. You’ve already spoken about all big players.”

A campaign to forget for Pakistan

Pakistan started their tournament by losing to New Zealand by 60 runs in Karachi. They then lost to India in Dubai by six wickets. The two results all but sealed their fate, with India and New Zealand going through to the semi-finals. They are now set to face each other in the final on Sunday. Pakistan’s last match against Bangladesh was washed out in Rawalpindi.

While there is yet to be any changes announced in the ODI setup, Pakistan have replaced Mohammad Rizwan as captain of the T20I side with Salman Agha. It is the fourth time that they have changed their skipper in T20Is since January last year with Shaheen Afridi and Babar Azam both being in the post in this period.