Shahid Afridi, a former Pakistani cricket captain faced strong criticism by ex-Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan, who criticized him on using his name as an insulting term in the media. Comments by Irfan after India defeated Pakistan 6-wickets in the second Super four of the Asia Cup 2025 on Sunday, September 21, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium that went by an amazing half-century that had been hit by Abhishek Sharma.
The Baroda native noted that former Pakistani cricket players frequently exploit his name to disparage him and garner attention on TV and social media, but he was happy if the comments helped them provide for their families. The former cricket player who is now a commentator added that many even criticize him on news platforms.
“Whoever these former cricketers from the neighbouring nation (Pakistan) make shows on my name in the media, keep doing it. You earn from it, you are able to feed your family through my name, so I am happy, honestly. I am not making any taunts here. And if you look in the media, they make many shows using my name. The former cricketers take my name on their social media handles. Some of them go on news channels and talk rubbish about me,” said Pathan in a video on his YouTube Channel.
As he and Indian players did not visibly react to the defeat of Pakistan to Zimbabwe in T20 World Cup 2022, Pathan admitted that Indians do not tend to care about the performance of other countries unless India participates. But he replied that Indians will retaliate when provoked.
“We Indians, on the other hand, don’t even talk about any other team when India isn’t playing. Pakistan lost to Zimbabwe in the 2022 T20 World Cup. Neither I nor any Indian cricketer tweeted about it on social media, because we actually don’t care at all. Whether Pakistan or any other team wins or loses, we do not care. We only talk about it when Pakistan plays against India and even criticize our shortcomings, but don’t care about your team. If you come and poke us, we will definitely bite you back.”
