On the back foot after his team's loss to arch-rivals India in Kolkata last week, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi chose to raise an unexpected controversy – raking up the issue of Kashmir, of all things – before the start of his team’s World T20 match here on Tuesday.
Asked by former Pakistan cricket captain and now commentator Rameez Raja if he and his team had support from the crowds here, Afridi said that "a lot of people are here for Kashmir".
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"It seems you have a bit of fan following here in Mohali," Raja remarked after Afridi lost the toss in the match against New Zealand.
"Ya, 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," Afridi said at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium here on Tuesday evening just before the start of the Pakistan vs New Zealand group match.
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That was a heavily loaded statement, and far less innocuous than it seems. Kashmir has been the subject of decades of tension between India and Pakistan, with the two neighbouring countries even having gone to war over it. Just last month there was a huge controversy over the issue, with reams of newsprint being devoted to the anti-India and pro-Kashmiri-independence chants by a few people at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.
Afridi has been known to have put his foot in his mouth frequently in the past. He had found himself in the midst of a controversy a few days back when he stated that the Pakistani cricket team got more love in India than in Pakistan. The statement led to severe criticism for Afridi in Pakistan, especially from former cricketers like Javed Miandad.
While this latest gaffe may be the result of Afridi’s callous attitude towards making public statements, it could very well set off another war of words between citizens of the two countries. Was there any need for him to drag a political issue into cricket? It is Sportskeeda’s view that the sport is much better off without such irrelevant and irresponsible comments being dragged on to the field.
Lovers of the sport have been yearning for more India-Pakistan clashes on the field, with the match at Eden Gardens last week turning out to be a visual treat for everyone. But if Afridi continues making ill-advised comments while in India, things could get sour in a hurry.
Expectedly, there were a lot of comments on Twitter condemning Afridi’s remarks. Here are a few of them:
(With inputs from Musab Abid).
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