Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi, who’s facing an ire for his newly-launched autobiography – Game Changer, revealed he has no regrets over disclosing his real age.
Earlier, the celebrated all-rounder’s age came under question which further saw Afridi breaking the silence in his memoir.
The veteran cricketer claimed he was not aware of his age when he made an appearance during Under-14 trials. He further reiterated that his age got wrongly filed in the record books.
Age confusion and Afridi:
Afridi, who hails from the Khyber Agency further witnessed there was no practice of availing birth certificates in his area before moving his base to Karachi.
“When my family moved to Karachi, I just knew the date and month of my birth and not the exact year that is why my age was erroneously recorded in the under-14 trials,” Afridi told Pakistan media.
Interestingly, during his interview with one of the Pakistani TV channels, Afridi revealed he said what he was suggested to disclose. Thus, his age has created misunderstanding in the cricketing world.
“The reason for my age being messed up in the records is that when I first appeared for the under-14 trials I myself really did not know my exact age. So, when the selectors asked me about my age and details I said what others told me to do. That age was officially recorded in the cricket board records and thus the misunderstanding,” Afridi said.
Afridi in his book revealed he was 19-year-old when he scored whirlwind knock of 37 balls 100 against Sri Lanka in Nairobi in 1996-97.
“I have no regrets because the record for scoring the fastest one-day hundred was mine since 1996 regardless of what my age was recorded,” Afridi added.
However, his age was recorded as 16 for the record which was later broken by Corey Anderson in 2014.
Game Changer with erroneous errors:
As the book has caused the stir, Afridi has maintained his birth year as 1977. The book has referred to Afridi’s birth year as 1975. However, according to Afridi is a mistake from the publishers of the book.
However, he stated the corrections would be made in the second edition. Also, he has laid stress on the factual errors which have witnessed flutter over the social media.
“It was a mistake by the publishers and copy editors. In the second edition of the book, the correction has been made,” Afridi added.
Known as ‘Boom Boom’ Afridi has featured in 398 ODIs, 99 Twenty20 Internationals and 27 Tests between 1996 and 2015. Amid the glittering career, he had been involved in controversies too.