'Ego Ke Liye Shaklein Bhi...': Shahid Afridi's Nasty Dig At India For WCL Exit
Shahid Afridi called the India Champions team's withdrawal from their semi-final against Pakistan Champions in the World Championship of Legends (WCL), a private T20 league, 'embarrassing'. He said it was motivated by 'one or two guys' on the Indian side, without mentioning the names.
Some Indian players had withdrawn from the WCL group stage game against Pakistan, citing their will to put the nation first, after severe social media backlash in light of the Pahalgam attack. As luck would have it, they reached the semi-final against each other and then backed out again.
It allowed Pakistan to get a walkover to the final.
'You need to be a good ambassador of your nation, not an embarrassment. It's because of one or two guys that this has happened. It's embarrassing overall," Afridi told a Pakistani journalist.
When asked whether it was a question of 'ego' in the Indian team, Afridi gave a crude retort.
' Ego ke liye shaklein bhi chahiye fir! (You need to be good-looking first to be egoistic)," he said.
The summit clash against South Africa is slated for Saturday (August 2).
Afridi started the interview on a much calmer tone, reiterating the message of diplomacy. He said when news came out that India were refusing to play against Afridi specifically, the former Pakistan captain even offered to not come to the ground because 'cricket is above everything'.
'I am Pakistan and Pakistan is me. It's my country. I have always said there's no better diplomacy between India and England in cricket. If you see tensions were there in the past too, but matches kept happening, the leaders sat together, watched matches together. You remember Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time. If you don't play, don't sit together, the distances will increase," Afridi said.
'It's very disappointing. 17,000 people were supposed to come from quite far places. Everyone is disappointed. I just want cricket to be separate from politics. If politics meddle with everything, we won't be able to move forward. Only those communities prosper that keep these things apart and talk," he added.
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