After Kapil Dev declined Shoaib Akhtar’s proposal for an India-Pakistan series to raise funds for the fight against COVID-19, former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has said that he had expected a better response from the former India skipper.
Notably, Akhtar had proposed for a three-match ODI series between India and Pakistan in a bid to help the two countries fight coronavirus crisis. To this, Dev said that Akhar is entitled to his opinion but India doesn’t need to raise the funds as they have enough money. Meanwhile, former IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla had mocked the Pakistani pacer for his proposal by terming his statement as “comic”.
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“The entire world is fighting against coronavirus and we need unity in our region to defeat this common enemy. Such negative comments don’t help at all,” Afridi said as quoted by PTI.
“I don’t see anything wrong with Shoaib Akhtar’s suggestion for Pakistan and India to play cricket.
“Kapil’s reaction has surprised me. I expected better from him and feel one should not talk like this in these crisis times,” he added.
Notably, the two nations have not played a bilateral cricket series since 2007 due to tensed diplomatic relationships between them. The only time they face each other is during the ICC events.
The pandemic COVID-19 has so far claimed more than 300 lives in India and has affected around 10,000 in the country. Meanwhile, the number of deaths in Pakistan due to the virus is around 93 along with the infected ones crossing the 5,000 mark by Monday evening as per the Worldometer.