Pakistan cricket team's T20I captain Shahid Afridi has been part of many India-Pakistan matches in his career. The only thing he might regret is that his team couldn’t defeat India even once in the ICC World Cup events.
Also read: ICC T20 World Cup 2016 Schedule
India and Pakistan have played each other 9 times in ICC events (6 times in World Cup and 3 times in World T20). Pakistan have never won a game till date. The above interview is of Afridi talking to the media after reaching back home from 2011 World Cup.
Afridi’s team again failed to meet the expectation of Pakistan’s fans and lost to India in the semis of the tournament. But the captain shot back at the journalists after he was asked a question about the rivalry between the sides and why Pakistan had again lost to India.
Excerpts from the above interview:
Journalists: “When you play India next in any ICC events will there again be a psychological pressure on you?”
Afridi: “I don't understand why people of Pakistan are so much against India. Why so much hatred against one team? There are many other teams in the world, why only India then?”
Journalists: “Not hatred, we were just talking about the rivalry.”
But Afridi cut the journalist mid-sentence and continued with his impassioned words.
Afridi: “In every Pakistani household, the Indian entertainment shows are on, most of our marriage ceremonies are celebrated in the Indian manner, we watch the Indian movies. If you want to hate them, then why not hate everything that you do Indian here? These words are all rubbish, the game of cricket should be played like a sport and not war.”
Quite a response from Afridi, that! And it could also go a long way in easing relations between fans of the two countries.
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