Follow UsFormer Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has strongly criticised a group of former Indian cricketers for pulling out of a World Championship of Legends (WCL) 2025 match against Pakistan. The high-profile clash, originally scheduled for July 20 (Sunday), was called off after several Indian players expressed discomfort playing against Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
Players like Yuvraj Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa, and Varun Aaron were part of the India Champions squad.
"We are here to play cricket, and I've always said that cricket should be kept away from politics — it should move forward. A player should be a good ambassador, not a source of embarrassment for their country," said Afridi, as quoted by the Times of India
"We've come here to play cricket. If [India] didn’t want to play against Pakistan, they should’ve refused before coming here. But now you've arrived, even held practice sessions, and then suddenly changed everything in a single day.
Afridi went on to call sport a unifying force, taking indirect digs at some of the Indian players. "Sports bring people closer, but if politics gets involved in everything, how will we move forward? Until we sit together and discuss issues, nothing will improve — lack of communication only makes things worse.
"We've come here to play cricket, to have one-on-one interactions and friendly conversations. But sometimes, there's one bad egg that spoils everything for everyone else.
"If I had known the match was being stopped because of me, I wouldn't have even gone to the ground. But cricket should go on. What is Shahid Afridi in front of cricket? Nothing.
"The game comes first. As a sport, cricket is the biggest thing. Bringing politics into it, or an Indian cricketer saying he won't play against Pakistan — then don't play, just sit out. But sport is bigger, cricket is bigger, and it's bigger than Shahid Afridi too."