Muhammad Asif’s controversial critique has made the headlines again. Back in the day, the tall lean man would send shivers down the spine of the most polished batters by his mere presence. His loose wrists would release the most lethal deliveries the cricketing world has ever seen.
But when he sold his country for a few bucks, his illustrious career came to a sudden halt. It was the end of him. But Asif has found ways to stay relevant. Now he sparks debates and takes unnecessary digs at the current Pakistan cricket set-up. Let’s take a look at what the cricketer has said now and how fans have reacted to it
Muhammad Asif’s controversial critique
Recently the fast baller took part in an X space (formerly known as Twitter) that was hosted by an Indian cricket fan. There, Asif spewed hate against the Pakistan cricket World Cup squad that is due to fly to India to participate in the mega event. He called bowlers’ average and even took a dig at Shaheen Shah Afridi and Salman Ali Agha
“We have all average bowlers in the squad; there’s none special.”
“Shaheen Afridi shouldn’t play against small teams like Nepal. I never played against teams like West Indies and Bangladesh in my career. A fast bowler needs rest to prolong his career. These days bowlers play league cricket a lot because money is involved.”
“I don’t consider Agha Salman as a player; he’s a waste of time. Even I can score the number of runs he scores. He only scores when Pakistan has already scored a lot of runs as a team.”
The 40-year-old did not even spare skipper Babar Azam. He said it’s hard to replace Azam. and regarding his batting, Asif claimed that he can bowl a maiden to the captain even in T20s because the 28-year-old plays too many dot balls and isn’t a hard-hitter on the go
“We don’t have a choice right now to replace Babar Azam as captain. Shahid Afridi is trying for Shaheen Afridi to become captain, but it’s not easy.”
“I can bowl a maiden over to Babar Azam in T20 cricket even today; he cannot hit the ball if you bowl good deliveries to him.”
The right-arm fast baller also told the audience about the Pakistan Cricket Board’s coaching offer at the National Cricket Academy which he declined due to the salary being too low for him.
“The PCB offered me a post in the National Cricket Academy for 11 Lac a month. I told them I earned 11 Lac a week in the USA. Give me what they are giving Mickey Arthur. I asked them for 45 Lac a month.”
Here’s a short snippet of how the pacer spoke about the current lot
Cricket fraternity angry at Muhammad Asif’s remarks
There was never a doubt about how skilful young Asif was in the olden days. International retired players still talk about how intimidating the baller was. Even the young are learning from his talent. But the fact remains that he will always be known as the spot-fixer. When he pledged guilty of his crimes, it brought huge shame to Pakistan. Even if the recent set of players aren’t supposedly playing well, it compares nothing to the damage his actions have done to Pakistan cricket.
It’s not the first time though that Muhammad Asif’s controversial critique has surfaced. From time to time he takes it to social media to offer his two cents on the players and the PCB management. But this time around, it was too much for the fans to bear. Many expressed their anger and frustration on X
Some followers even dug out old tweets of players who reacted to Asif’s old remarks about them
Fans will do anything to defend the skipper even if it means searching out one exact ball of one specific match
Expressing one’s views is one thing and abusing and downright insulting is another. Someone really needs to teach Muhammad Asif the difference.
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