BCCI slams Shahid Afridi for alleged Kashmir comments

03/23/2016

BCCI general secretary Anurag Thakur slammed Shahid Afridi’s remarks involving Kashmir, branding them inappropriate considering the political sensitivity surrounding the topic. He has also confirmed that the venues for the semis would remain the same, quashing the doubts over the match in Delhi.

On Tuesday before the match where Pakistan took on New Zealand, Shahid Afridi had remarked, “Lot of people from Kashmir are here” and thereafter added, “a lot of people are out here to support us.” These two statements were taken together by most media outlets and used so as to suggest Afridi meant something on the lines of “Kashmiris support the Pakistan team.”

On the basis of these reports, the BCCI chief came out today and said that the remarks left a bad taste in the mouth.

"To give a statement like that is not politically correct. A player should stay away from all this. That's the reason why he was criticised in Pakistan," said Thakur, referring to the comments Afridi made after reaching Indian shores. The Pakistan skipper had talked about how he received more love in India than in Pakistan and was criticized by most ex-cricketers, right from Javed Miandad to Imran Khan.

Anurag Thakur also clarified that there would be no change of venues for the semi-finals of the ongoing World T20. Mumbai and Delhi were assigned the matches, but there were doubts over Delhi hosting the game owing to the RP Mehra block not being open to the public after a Delhi High Court ruling. But Thakur allayed all such fears and confirmed that the Feroz Shah Kotla will host the final-four game without any issues.

The semi-finals are supposed to take place on March 30 and March 31 in New Delhi and Mumbai respectively.