Former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi is very active on social media, where he is known for creating controversies and spewing venom with his tweets on Indian cricketers and issues regarding Kashmir.
Lately, he has been a source of many controversial claims. It was a few days ago when Shahid Afridi had stated that the Pakistan cricket team used to beat the Indian cricket team so much that the Men in Blue used to ask for forgiveness after the match.
Now, Shahid Afridi has come up with another controversial statement, where he has stood by his 9-year-old claim that the legendary cricketer was scared of Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar. Not just this, Shahid Afridi also stated that Sachin Tendulkar himself won’t agree to this fact that he was scared of Shoaib Akhtar.
In his book Controversially Yours, Afridi had said – “He (Sachin Tendulkar) was scared of Shoaib. I have seen it myself. I was fielding at square leg and saw his legs trembling when Shoaib came on to bowl.”
Now, talking to Zainab Abbas in a chat on YouTube, the 40-year-old said:
“Dekhiye Sachin Tendulkar aapne muh se toh nahi kahega ki main dar raha hu (Sachin obviously won’t say it himself that ‘I’m scared’). There were some spells from Shoaib Akhtar in which not only Sachin Tendulkar but some of the world’s best also got shaken up.”
He added:
“When you are fielding at mid-off or covers, you can see it. You can sense the body language of a player. You can easily understand that a batsman is under pressure, he is not at his usual best. I’m not saying that Shoaib has scared Tendulkar always but there have been some spells from Shoaib that have pushed some of the world’s best including Tendulkar on to the backfoot,”
Shahid Afridi also said that Sachin also looked scared of Saeed Ajmal. He had said:
“During the World Cup, he also looked scared of Saeed Ajmal. It’s not a big deal, players do feel the pressure at times and it becomes difficult,”
