KARACHI
\nPakistan\u2019s veteran all-rounder and former skipper Shahid Afridi has finally reacted to Indian star batter Virat Kohli\u2019s remarks on playing in Pakistan.
\n\u201cI expected such a statement from Virat. I welcome Kohli, whether he comes to the Pakistan Super League (PSL) or with the Indian team,\u201d Afridi said while speaking during a tape ball event in Karachi on Saturday. Afridi\u2019s comments refer to Kohli\u2019s remarks, while speaking to Pakistani mountaineer Shehroze Kashif, wherein he said that he hopes to visit Pakistan \u201csoon\u201d.
\n\u201cGive my regards to your family and all your friends. Hopefully, we [will] visit Pakistan soon [as] everyone has started visiting now,\u201d Kohli can be heard saying in the video. The video which dates back to 2022, has since then been deleted by Kashif, owing to the controversy that arose and in light of his personal contacts in the neighbouring country. \u201cI had to delete the video because of my personal contacts in India with whom I\u2019m very good friends with and they requested me to do so.
\n\u201cPlease don\u2019t blow this out of proportion. Let\u2019s keep things in perspective and not create unnecessary issues […]It\u2019s disheartening to see such insecurity over a fan simply talking to their favourite athlete,\u201d the caption read on his social media posts.
\n\u201cThis is also affecting Kohli,\u201d Kashif said in a video posted on his social media accounts saying that it was \u201cso nice\u201d of the Indian batter reach out after reading some articles about him.
\n\u201cIts actually sad and I\u2019m very disappointed,\u201d the mountaineer said, stressing that unfortunately what could\u2019ve been used to convey a positive message was in fact interpreted negatively.
\n\u201cWe should\u2019ve taken this as a positive message rather than creating a controversy around such a great player,\u201d he said while referring to the coverage being given to the Indian batter in the Indian news media.
\nStressing that Pakistani sports personalities are not insecure on their interaction with their Indian counterparts, Kashif said that there are no boundaries in sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI Pakistan\u2019s veteran all-rounder and former skipper Shahid Afridi has finally reacted to Indian star batter Virat Kohli\u2019s remarks on playing in Pakistan. \u201cI expected such a statement from Virat. I welcome Kohli, whether he comes to the Pakistan Super League (PSL) or with the Indian team,\u201d Afridi said while speaking during a tape ball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-408126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n