Srinagar: Former Pakistan cricketers Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Yousuf and Umar Gul have all taken a tough stand on former cricketer Abdul Razzaq’s disrespectful comment towards bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai.
During an event on Monday, Razzaq stated, “Younis Khan had good intentions as a captain and it gave me confidence to perform better. Everyone over here is talking about the intention and Pakistan’s team. Actually, we don’t have good intentions to develop and polish players in Pakistan. If you think that marrying Aishwarya Rai, would give you a good and pious kid, would be wrong, it would never happen.”
The comment was disrespectfull towards Rai and also towards women overall.
Lashing out at Razzaq and those laughed out at the comment, Shoaib Akhtar wrote, “I highly condemn the inappropriate joke/comparison made by Razzaq. No woman should be disrespected like this. People seated beside him should have raised their voices right away rather than laughing & clapping.”
Later Akhtar posted anther Tweet on X clarifying that Shahid Afridi has already condemned the comment and has clarified his position.
“I just had a word with @SAfridiOfficial. He called & said that he genuinely did not understand what was said otherwise he would have condemned it there & then.
He has condemned it on TV as well and in clear words with me on the phone,” Akhtar wrote.
Umar Gul has also issued clarification for laughing and clapping on what their former teammate said.
Meanwhile, Yousuf took to social media and wrote: “As a cricketer I feel sorry that Abdul Razzaq made comments about Indian actress in a media talk. I hope he will be ashamed of what he said and apologize.”
On another TV show, Afridi said he didn’t know what Razzaq said, and he laughed because everyone was enjoying the moment.
“I saw the clip when I went home and realised that Abdul Razzaq made a wrong statment. I knew he had a mike in his hand and will say something. He has a habit of getting beaten by shoes. I will just text him tio apologize for what he said as it was wrong,” he said.