Shahid Afridi, the former captain of Pakistan, came under heavy fire from former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan for using his name in a disparaging manner in the media. Irfan Pathan remarks after India’s six-wicket victory over Pakistan in the second Super Four of the Asia Cup 2025 on Sunday, September 21, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, which was fuelled by a spectacular half-century from Abhishek Sharma.
The Baroda native noted that former Pakistani cricket players frequently exploit his name to disparage him and garner attention on TV and social media, but he was happy if the comments helped them provide for their families. The former cricket player who is now a commentator added that many even criticise him on news platforms.
“Whoever it is that these former cricket players from Pakistan, our neighbour, use to promote me in the media, keep doing it. Since you get money from it and can provide for your family under my name, I’m genuinely glad. This is not a taunt from me. Additionally, my name is used in a lot of shows in the media. My name appears on the social media accounts of the former cricket players. In a video posted to his YouTube account, Pathan claimed, “Some of them go on news channels and talk rubbish about me.”
Since neither he nor Indian players openly responded to Pakistan’s defeat to Zimbabwe in the 2022 T20 World Cup, Irfan Pathan acknowledged that Indians often don’t care about other countries’ results unless India is playing. However, he said that Indians will retaliate if pushed.
However, when India isn’t playing, we Indians don’t even discuss any other team. Zimbabwe defeated Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup. Since we genuinely don’t care, neither I nor any Indian cricket player posted a tweet about it on social media. We don’t care if Pakistan or any other team wins or loses. We don’t care about your team; we only discuss it when Pakistan meets India and even point out our flaws.
India
