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As the political turmoil within the country continues to transcend, questions, trolls & character assassination are propelling parallelly. Shahid Afridi, a lustrous character is currently finding himself in the hot waters for similar reasons.
The star all-rounder is facing backlashes from every possible corner for the comments he made regarding the former captain and the heavyweight politician nowadays, Imran Khan. As the criticism continues to intensify, a brief check on how it all started is extremely important to examine & understand.
What exactly happened?
The current political status in the country leads to only two possible pathways. Either you are with the truth or amongst the ignorants. Netizens aren’t ready to entertain any third point of view. Shahid Afridi diverted the attention of critics towards him after a congratulatory tweet in which he felicitated the newly appointed prime minister of the country, Shahbaz Sharif.
The trolls against the veteran all-rounder severed after he raised certain objections against Imran Khan in an Eid transmission of a local television network
“A lot of educated people were inspired by Imran Bhai to go vote. But the fact of the matter is, God gives and God takes away. God gave Imran Khan and then He took it away. And He took it away because Imran Bhai made a lot of mistakes. And he should accept those mistakes”
These remarks fired up the sentiments of a huge section of the community which resulted in a strong social media campaign against Shahid Afridi. The hate elevated to such an extent that he was forced to come up with a YouTube video justifying his stance.
Cricketers turning up in support of Shahid Afridi:
A persistent hate-mongering against the former star compelled certain players to lend support in favor of Shahid.
The emerging pacer Shaheen Shah broke the trend and came up with a positive message for the former leg spinner.
Kamran Akmal also defended him by emphasizing the services of Afridi to the nation. As well as stressing the fact that Afridi’s achievements should be kept separate from his point of view.
Why is the Criticism on Shahid Afridi unjust?
From common cricket fanatics to the cricket board, Pakistan has always maintained a strong stance that politics should be kept isolated from the game. Relations with Indian cricket and the BLM movement are prime examples of this behavior being practically depicted.
Although from the Kashmir issue to the current fiasco, Afridi has been very vocal with his political opinions. But the fact of the matter is that Afridi hasn’t had any direct involvement in the political circle of the country and these are his mere personal opinions as he recently stated:
“I never made a personal attack on him(Imran Khan), but I have the right to disagree with his policies. I expressed my views as a common Pakistani”
All this combined imply that players should be kept out of any sort of political grudge. Their opinions should be regarded and respected as that of anyone. A fine line should be drawn between their political affiliations and cricket career and both should never be intermixed.
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