LAHORE: Pakistan’s manager Naveed Akram Cheema rejected reports in the media claiming that there was a rift between Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq and vice-captain Mohammad Hafeez.

He said the reports were part of a ‘negative campaign’ to dent Pakistan’s confidence ahead of its ODI series against South Africa

“It is a part of negative propaganda against the team and its members which aims at demoralizing its confidence ahead of the ODI series after its success in the T20 match,” Cheema said while talking to APP.

Pakistan will open its five-match series on March 10 with rest of the matches on March 15, 17, 21 and 24.

“The team is fully united and there is no rift between Hafeez or Misbah or any other player and all the players are looking to the one-day series with renewed zeal,” he added.

Former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ijaz Butt recently said that the national team’s 0-3 drubbing at the hands of South Africa in the three-Test series had posed serious questions about captaincy since the performance of both Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez had left a lot to be desired and indicated that their confidence level had gone down considerably.

“I had criticised the PCB’s decision to appoint Hafeez as T20 captain because I had the same sort of fears in mind at the time,” Butt said.

“Just imagine if both Misbah and Hafeez are struggling like this and are in a certain frame of mind about each other, the captaincy issue can really get ugly,” he added.

Pakistan's manager, however, said giving air to unfounded rifts served no purpose as the players were focusing on the one-day games and there was no time to concentrate on issues which were far from reality.

“It has become a common practice to launch a propaganda campaign against the team by targeting players ahead of an important event but the team management is fully aware of the situation and is determined to defy all such moves in the larger interest of the Pakistan team and cricket.”

“Our aim is to take Pakistan cricket high with our team playing quality cricket and producing positive results,” Cheema added.