Dubai: Shoaib Akhtar, former Pakistani cricketer, has been one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket and was referred to as the 'Rawalpindi Express'. But, when he referred to himself as the ‘don of cricket’ on twitter, tweeps were faster at trolling him.
On his official twitter account, @shoaib100mph, he wrote: “Don of cricket as they called me, but never enjoyed hurting people. But, I must say when I was out there I just ran in for the love of my country and for the people around the world.”
Along with the tweet, he also shared a collage of images with the words, “deliveries that made cricket fans love the fast and furious Shoaib Akhtar”, plastered over them. The images showed all the international batsmen who have been victims of his fast bowling in the past.
Don of cricket as they called me but never enjoyed hurting people but I must say when I was out there I just ran in for the love of my country & for the people around the world .. pic.twitter.com/be84Y2yYl5
— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) October 7, 2018
The tweet did not land well with many cricket fans, especially those from India. Many Indian tweeps started sharing video clips of Sachin Tendulkar, former Indian cricketer, on the batting end against Akhtar and trolled the former pace bowler for his comment.
Tweep @TheMystic19 wrote: “How can you forget this gem from @sachin_rt? Smashing you my friend.”
How can you forget this gem from @sachin_rt !!
— Gautam (@TheMystic19) October 7, 2018
Smashing you my friend.
You were also winning asia cup this time..😂 pic.twitter.com/jyFgga9EXc
@NiteshNavkar tweeted: “You didn’t include a picture of your great bowling, which Sachin [Tendulkar] hit for a massive six above point boundary during the 2003 World Cup.”
During the 2003 World Cup match between India and Pakistan, Tendulkar had scored 98 runs in 75 deliveries and team India won by six wickets.
There were some other tweeps, including those from Pakistan, who just disagreed with his ‘don of cricket’ comment.
Tweep @attentionmagnet posted: “Never heard anyone calling Shoaib Akhtar ‘don of cricket’ until I heard it from Shoaib Akhtar himself here.”
@Crick4ever tweeted: “Fast and always furious for sure! Don... ummmmm may be not. Self admiration doesn’t work on social media.”
Tweep @sumitmalpani added: “You were good but Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were better and more intelligent bowlers than you. In fact, I really loved Aaqib Javed and Abdul Razzaq. They were underrated, but they were really good. You got the speed but most of the time you were injured.”
However, some Pakistani cricket fans came to Akhtar’s support and praised him for his bowling.
Tweep @skillspaybillz wrote: “There will never be another Shoaib Akhtar!”
@Akki86881512 tweeted: “It was really a pleasure watching you bowl at 95mph. Speedster Akhtar.”