Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has slammed Peshawar Zalmi’s owner Javed Afridi after the latter said that the Pakistan Super League (PSL) could have continued for another 48 hours amid novel coronavirus outbreak. Akhtar also criticized Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the deletion in PSL’s suspension.
In the tournament, only the two semi-finals and the final were left to be played before the PCB decided to postpone the PSL. But Peshawar owner Afridi opined that the last few games could have been completed, which triggered Akhtar.
“I back the decision to postpone the league, but on a personal note, I was in favour of holding the remaining matches as well. While we were discussing this issue in meeting with other PSL franchises and PCB, I raised the point that it is just a matter of 48 hours, so let the PSL conclude in a better way,” Afridi was quoted as saying by ProPakistani.pk.
Akhtar lashed out the comments made by Afridi and said, “One of the team owners is still saying that these remaining matches should also have taken place. Imagine if this outbreak had spread in the stadium, be it Karachi or Lahore.”
Akhtar didn’t just stop there as he went on to slam the Pakistan board as well. He expressed that it was a mistake by PCB to postpone the league way too late. He also claimed that the board would’ve continued if the cases had not come out.
“Honestly, it was a stupid mistake by the PCB to continue the league. Also, I’m pretty sure that they would have kept it running if the case had not emerged. PCB was late about six days with regard to the suspension of the league. Putting people at risk was not a sensible thing to do,” added the Rawalpindi express.
