Indian fan of Shahid Afridi wants to meet him at least once

India and Pakistan are on the off-track relationship of their on the cricket field. However, the fans seem to be bringing them closer. Recently, Shahid Afridi found a die hard fan in Assam, India. The news broke out on the media when the young Indian fan was detained by the police for supporting Shahid Afridi. The 21-year old recently expressed his desire to meet the Pakistani star player at least once in his lifetime.

As per the recent reports in The Dawn, the fan himself admitted to be following Afridi since a long time and wishes to see the star. Ripon Chaudhary was arrested a couple of days ago on Sunday in Hailakandi, Assam.

He was seen wearing a Pakistan team jersey while being engaged in a local cricket tournament in his area. The fan was wearing the rival country’s jersey and that did not go well with some of the people of a Hindu nationalist group. The people of the Youth Wing of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) soon filed a complaint against him at the local police station. The police took action and detained the young fan for 8 straight hours.

He was left after that and then expressed his desire to meet the Pakistani star. He said that he wants to meet Afridi “at least once in his life”. He is very hopeful that his wish will come true soon. The former Pakistan skipper, too, was very pleased to know about his Indian fan. He mentioned that he would love to meet his fan whenever it becomes possible for him to meet up. He added that the teams must hence encourage to play more and more cricket.

Earlier, Afridi had said that all these acts of arrests will not cease the fans from supporting their cricket stars across the borders. He thanked his Indian fan and quoted, “Pakistan and India always come closer by cricket.” A few months ago, a fan from Pakistan was arrested when he was seen supporting Indian cricket star Virat Kohli. Such fans always end up bringing the cricket to the fore. Both teams have not been playing bilateral series against each other due to political tensions between the two countries.

Recently, there were speculations about India playing Pakistan in a tri-series or quadrangular series. However, the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri recently clarified that the meeting at the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in Colombo did no see any such discussions take place. He also cleared any rumors of India playing Pakistan in the near future.