The 21-year-old Indian youngster, Ripon Chaudhry, who was arrested by local police over wearing Pakistan team shirt while watching a local cricket tournament in Assam, says he wants to meet Shahid Afridi at-least once in his life.
The die-hard fan of Pakistani cricket star Shahid Afridi said this on Thursday during an exclusive interview to DawnNews.
Ripon Chowdhury, 21, was arrested on Sunday in Hailakandi, a small town in India’s northeastern state of Assam, while watching a local cricket tournament after his shirt angered a Hindu nationalist group.
A complaint was filed against him by India’s ruling Bhartia Janta Party (BJP)’s Youth Wing. He was detained for eight hours by the local police.
Chaudhry said that he is often called as Afridi in his village due to his aggressive batting style, that’s why he wears a shirt that resembles Afridi’s 10 number shirt.
The Afridi fan said he really wants to meet Boom Boom “at least once in his life”. He hoped that his dream to meet Afridi will come true one day.
When contacted, Shahid Afridi thanked his Indian fan and said, “Pakistan and India always come closer by cricket”.
We must encourage to play more and more cricket, he added.
Pakistani star cricketer said that whenever he gets a chance to meet Ripon he would love to do so.
He had earlier said that such acts would not deter the subcontinent’s cricket-mad fans from supporting rival players.