Michael Vaughan and Mohammad Hafeez have been having a go at each other on social media since the last few days. Here is all you need to know about the context behind their constant back and forth.

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Midway through the 2023 World Cup, Pakistan were stuck with a host of issues, both on the field and off it, all at once. Ranging from poor performance of spinners to leaked WhatsApp messages to resignation of the chief selector due to a conflict of interest, a lot seemed to be happening.

A day before Pakistan’s match against New Zealand in Bengaluru on November 4, Vaughan posted a cheeky tweet mentioning how things had been too calm in Pakistan cricket for the last couple of days and that they needed some sort of controversy to get them going.

Hafeez responded to Vaughan’s tweet by asking him to focus on the problems surrounding England and not Pakistan. He brought up David Willey’s comments on the central contract snub by the ECB which had played a role in him announcing his retirement from international cricket in the middle of the World Cup.

A couple of days later, on November 5, India met South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata where Virat Kohli scored his 49th ODI hundred on his 35th birthday.

On a tough Eden Gardens surface, Kohli remained unbeaten on 101 off 121 balls, his slowest 100-plus score in ODIs. Some people accused him of being deliberately slow as he aimed to score his hundred and not maximise the team score. Hafeez was among them.

Speaking on a Pakistan news channel, Hafeez said that he “saw a sense of selfishness in Virat Kohli’s batting”. Vaughan responded to his comments saying it was “utter nonsense”.

When Ben Stokes cracked his first World Cup hundred, scoring 108 off 84 balls against the Netherlands on November 8, Hafeez took it as an opportunity to drive home his point and take a dig at Vaughan.

Tagging Vaughan in a tweet, Hafeez said that Stokes’ innings was the perfect example to differentiate between a selfish knock and a selfless knock, referring to Kohli’s hundred against South Africa.

Vaughan agreed with him on the quality of Stokes’ hundred, but was firm in his defence of Kohli, stating that his century came in tougher conditions against a tougher bowling attack.

A couple of hours after responding to Hafeez’s post on Stokes, Vaughan posted another tweet including a picture of Kohli dismissing Hafeez in a T20 World Cup game in 2012. Taking a shot at the former Pakistan all-rounder, Vaughan asked him whether it was this dismissal that was the root of his regular comments against Kohli.

Today (November 9), Vaughan reposted a clip of that dismissal, tagging and mocking Hafeez.

Keeping the back and forth going, Hafeez dug out a clip from a 2003 ODI between England and Pakistan where Vaughan was caught in the deep by him, attempting a pull shot.

Vaughan took it positively, this time taking a self-dig and said, “That’s actually one of my better shots in ODI cricket so thanks for showing everyone.”

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