Anurag Thakur criticizes Shahid Afridi for ‘Kashmir’ comments

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur has come down heavily on comments made by Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi, who said that “a lot of people from Kashmir” had come to support Pakistan during the toss against New Zealand in Mohali.

A section of the crowd cheered for Pakistan and Afridi when he walked out for the toss against New Zealand. Commentator Ramiz Raja asked him whether he had support for his team here or not. To this Shahid Afridi replied, “Yes, a lot of people, a lot of people are here from Kashmir as well. And I want to thank people of Kolkata; they really support us as well,”

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said that, “To give a statement like that is not politically correct. A player should stay away from all this. That’s the reason why he was criticised in Pakistan,” Afridi was earlier criticized by the Pakistani media at home for saying that they receive more love in India than in Pakistan.

Things have not been so good for Shahid Afridi in this World T20 2016, as he lost a crunch match against India and now has lost to New Zealand, effectively putting them out of the semi-final race. It has been decided the he will be dropped as the captain of the team, once Pakistan’s World T20 campaign ends.

He had drawn flak for the comment where he said that he received more love in India than he receives in Pakistan. Afridi has already hinted that Pakistan’s next game against Australia might be his last game in the format for Pakistan. He has already retired from the other two formats of the game. He retired from Test cricket in 2010 and from ODI cricket in 2015 after the ICC World Cup that was held in Australia and New Zealand and Pakistan had reached the quarterfinal stage.

Afridi eventually hinted about the impending retirement by saying, “That (the match against Australia) could be my last,” at the post-match presentation after the game against New Zealand, which Pakistan lost from a very strong position.