Shahid Afridi said he will train players from Balochistan. Balochs say, ‘We don’t want cricket, we want justice.’

The tainted Pakistani all-rounder and a serial retirement-seeker Shahid Afridi has conceded a self-goal with his recent statements in Balochistan. Afridi is touring Pakistan in the wake of Coronavirus, putting the garb of a Good Samaritan, all but while using the opportunity as a platform to catapult into the Pakistani politics much like Imran Khan. Last month he had visited Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and had targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a horrid speech. Now he has travelled to Balochistan where calls to throw away the Pakistani government have been growing pace. Afridi had last month also demanded of a Kashmiri team in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) for which he was severely trolled.

Afridi addressing the media said that Balochistan has a lot of cricketing and football talent and that he was always available to help with cricket here. The 18-year-old Afridi claimed that he had asked for a cricket academy to be set up here.

Afridi further said that he will take the prospective talent with him to Karachi where he will train and teach them. The all-rounder said that there is a lot of talent amongst the people of Balochistan but the people here do not get a place in the Pakistan National team. Afridi went about the same speech he had delivered in PoK and said that facilities were scarce in the region.

Severely trolled by Balochs

The moment the video came out on the social media platforms, the Balochs started targeting Afridi saying that the natives of Balochistan did not want his academy. Balochs further said that they were not dying of hunger but by the bullets of Pakistani atrocities against the Pashtuns and Balochs.

One tweeter by the name Jawud Mohammady said, “We are not dying of hunger, we are dying of state bullets. Balochistan does not want cricket, do you know about missing persons?

Another netizen showed Shahid Afridi his place by saying, “We are not starving, we are dying of state bullets. Waziristan and Balochistan need a life of peace, not cricket”

“We are not dying of hunger, we are dying of state bullets. Balochistan doesn’t want cricket, do you know missing persons? Have you ever had any reaction or press conference about the targeted killing of Pashtuns and Baloch and mutilated bodies?” said one tweeter named Mubasher Wazir who pointed out to the targeted killing of Pashtuns and Balochs in the country.

Netizens poured over him as one by the name Kashifbaloch ruthlessly trolled Shahid Afridi, “It will not be his turn for twenty years now. Let him spend a little of the money he has made from gambling. He has not given a single penny to a poor person. Now it will be lost in politics but nothing good will come of it.”

Not his first-brush with controversy

This is not the first time that Afridi has stirred the pot of controversy with his loose talks. After Modi government’s historic decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir last year, Afridi had tweeted in support of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s appeal to show solidarity with Kashmiris.

Shahid Afridi once mentioned that when Pakistani cricketers are facing Indian cricketers on the ground, their orders are clear: “go and destroy them, almost like a suicide bomber does”. Despite such bomb pep talks, Pakistan, unfortunately, has never been able to beat India in World Cups across the formats.

Afridi is clearly a minion of ISI and Pakistani Army, working at their behest, trying to manufacture controversy every now and then. Just like Imran Khan, Afridi might be looking to foray into politics and therefore he is making such statements to stay in the limelight. Balochistan has long been simmering with unrest against Pakistani atrocities and the statements of Afridi have further enraged the natives of the region.