Pakistan fast bowler, Shaheen Afridi, takes a cheeky jibe at former pacer, Shoaib Akhtar, citing his comments about Babar Azam’s English communication skills. In February of this year, Shoaib Akhtar slammed the Pakistani skipper for his poor English.
Most of the cricketers in Pakistan struggle to speak fluent English during match presentations, and press conferences and are often trolled for this. And Akhtar believes that Babar Azam has poor communication skills when it comes to speaking English and it is one of the biggest reasons why Azam is not a big brand in cricket like Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli.
In an interview with a local Pakistani channel, Akhtar slammed communication skills of Pakistani players, including Babar, and said, “Abhi aap dekh le, koi character nahi team mein. Naa koi baat karne ka tarika. How awkward it looks when they come to the presentation. Kitna mushkil hai English seekhna aur baat krna? Cricket is one job, and handling media is another. If you can’t speak, I am sorry, but you won’t be able to express yourself on TV.”
“I want to openly say that Babar Azam should be the biggest brand in Pakistan, but why hasn’t he become the biggest brand in Pakistan? Because he can’t speak. Is there any other cricketer who can speak well? Why do only I, Shahid Afridi, and Wasim Akram get all the advertisements? The reason is that we take it as a job,” he added.
However, Babar Azam brushed aside criticism of his communication skills and said that he was working on the same and that he would learn with time.
Shaheen Afridi Takes A Dig At Shoaib Akhtar
Meanwhile, talented Pakistani left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi, who recently won the Pakistan Super League (PSL 2023) with Lahore Qalandars for the second consecutive time, took a jibe at the former fast bowler for his comments on Babar being not a big brand.
In an exclusive interview with a local media channel, Shaheen Afridi was asked about the qualities of Shoaib Akhtar that he admires the most.
To which the pacer replied, “Brand ache se banate hain.”
Recently, Akhtar had also commented on Shaheen’s injury during the final of the T20 World Cup 2022 against England. Afridi had come into the tournament with a knee injury which was being managed by the team management.
However, it all came to a head as Afridi tweaked his knee while taking a catch in the field and couldn’t manage to complete his full quota of overs.
To this, Shoaib Akhtar had said that if he was in his place, he would have somehow bowled taking painkillers and injections, and would have rather died than quit to bowl at the biggest stage of the World Cup, i.e., the final.