Pakistan’s legendary all-rounder, Shahid Afridi, backed his former teammate Shoaib Akhtar in his verbal dual with Kapil Dev. Earlier, Akhtar suggested a bilateral series between India and Pakistan to raise funds for COVID-19 relief.
However, the former Indian captain lashed out at Akhtar by claiming that India has enough money to provide relief for their country and would not require any series with Pakistan to raise funds.
Further, Dev mentioned that players’ safety could not be compromised to raise funds. To which, Akhtar countered by stating that maybe Kapil does not need the money but everyone else.
“I don’t think Kapil Bhai understood what I was trying to say. Everyone is going to be trapped economically. This is the time to put our heads together and generate revenues,” Akhtar replied.
Then, Afridi joined in the conversation by registering his disappointment on Dev’s comments for Akhtar’s suggestion.
“Shoaib Akhtar said something positive for the sake of humanity. I’m shocked at Kapil Dev’s reply to him as I’ve seen videos from India where people are taking food from the garbage & eating it. While I respect him, Kapil shouldn’t have said what he did,” Afridi commented according to Pakpassion.
India and Pakistan haven’t locked horns against each other in a bilateral fixture since Pakistan’s tour of India in 2012.
Since then, the arch-rivals have only met during high-octane ICC events such as the ODI and T20 World Cup, along with Champions Trophy. Also, the two countries faced off against each other in the Asia Cup.
PCB earlier sued BCCI for not obeying the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which dictated India to take part in bilateral ties in between 2014-2023.
BCCI also refused to allow its players to tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2020, citing security measures. As a result, the tournament was pushed to the neutral grounds of UAE.
