Former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar has made a boisterous claim that he rejected a massive 175,000-pound county contract with Nottinghamshire to serve his country in the Kargil war.
The Kargil war was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan which took place in the summers of 1999. Akhtar claimed that he was ready to sacrifice his life for the nation.
“People hardly know about this story. I had a 175,000-pound contract with Nottingham. Then in 2002, I had another big contract. I left both when Kargil happened,” Akhtar was quoted as saying by ARY News.
The ‘Rawalpindi Express’ further asserted that he was never concerned about money or county cricket and recalled an interesting anecdote when a general of Pakistan’s armed forces found him on the outskirts of Lahore.
“I stood on the outskirts of Lahore. A general asked me what I’m doing there. I said war is about to start and we’ll die together. I left county [cricket] twice like this and the counties were shocked. I wasn’t concerned about that. I called up my friends in Kashmir and told them I am ready to fight,” he added.
“When the planes (from India) came and downed some of our trees, that was a big loss for us. They dropped 6-7 trees and we are really putting a lot of focus on trees now. I was very hurt about this.”
“I was feeling dizzy when I woke up that day and my wife told me to calm down. But until the next day when I saw the news, that continued. I know the inside story of what happened on the next day, I’m from Rawalpindi and I know GHQ,” concluded Akhtar.
In a career spanning across a decade, Akhtar has more than 400 wickets to his name across all formats. He played his last ODI against New Zealand in 2011.
