Waqar comes to Afridi's defence over 'love in India' statement

Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi earlier said that he always enjoyed playing in India than any other country as he and his family got more love in the neighbouring country than Pakistan.

In his response to the critics who slammed him over the remarks, Afridi stated that if the nation demanded peace instead of television set then there would be peace in the world. He added that some journalists are born to deliberately misinterpret an innocent statement.

Waqar Younis came to Afridi’s defence and said that there was nothing controversial in his statements and was expressing his emotions.

“For me, I did not find anything controversial in it. This is something he felt. It’s his emotions. I believe we should leave it at that rather than creating a controversy out of nothing. We’re here to play cricket, to beat teams. To focus on cricket is a better idea”, Younis said.

“My message to the boys is just leave everything behind. This is about playing some quality cricket, playing for the nation. They all are capable”, he added.

It should be noted that Afridi’s love in India remarks created a furore in Pakistan and the all rounder was criticized heavily over issuing the statement.

Pakistani legend cricketer Javed Miandad stated that he should be ashamed of himself.

The Judicial Activism Panel (JAP) claimed that the cricketer’s statement had hurt the sentiments of the nation and served a legal notice on Afridi and asked him to clarify his statement.