Daily Times

LAHORE: Former Pakistan star all-rounder Shahid Afridi was finally given a formal send-off by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), which included a lap of honour, at the Gaddafi Stadium here on Friday. Afridi, who is currently in Lahore to witness the World XI-Pakistan matches, had earlier declined several offers in this regard. The cricketer and the board had developed differences in 2016 in connection with his ‘farewell’ after retirement from international cricket. According to the new arrangement, a short ceremony was held in honour of former captains Misbahul Haq and Afridi before the commencement of the Twenty20 international between Pakistan and World XI. Both former cricketers took a lap of honour of the stadium and received a standing ovation from the fans present at the jam-packed venue. The ‘lap of honour’ is a fresh trend in the world of cricket, allowing audiences to send off their favourite players with a standing ovation. Afridi represented Pakistan in 98 T20Is, 398 ODIs and 27 Tests, where he claimed more than 500 wickets and scored more than 11,000 runs.

Afridi was recently asked by PCB chairman Najam Sethi to do a lap of honour with the World XI and Pakistan players in the last T20 match that was played at the Gaddafi Stadium yesterday, to which Afridi had agreed. However, in a later development, it was revealed that Sethi had in fact asked Afridi to attend a reception at a local hotel on Thursday and accept an award from the PCB on stage before the lap of honour at the Friday match. Afridi had declined Sethi’s suggestion and said that he would be sticking to his earlier decision of not taking any farewell from the cricket board. Sources said that the all-rounder was obviously displeased by the ‘deal’ offered by Sethi, which explained why he stayed away from the awards ceremony held in Lahore on Thursday. Senior batsman Younus Khan too had refused to attend the event despite several reminders from the PCB.

Published in Daily Times, September 16^th 2017.