Afridi says arrest of Indian fan was ‘shameful’
PAKISTAN all-rounder Shahid Afridi said yesterday that the arrest of an Indian student for wearing a shirt bearing his name was “shameful”, but would not deter the subcontinent’s cricket-mad fans from supporting rival players.
Ripon Chowdhury, 21, was arrested on Sunday in Hailakandi, a small town in the northeastern state of Assam, while watching a local cricket tournament after his shirt angered a Hindu nationalist group.
“A complaint was lodged against him by a local right-wing outfit. We arrested him based on the complaint but gave him bail immediately,” a source said on the condition of anonymity, refusing to confirm media reports that Chowdhury had been charged with obscenity in a public place.
Afridi, whose mighty sixes and all-ornothing approach to batting has earned him a huge following across the cricketing world, slammed the move.
“It was shameful to arrest a fan for wearing my sh i r t,” t he 36-yea r-old said. “Such incidents don’t suit civ ilised people.”
He said that fans in both India and Pakistan put the sport above the oftenfraught relations between their countr ies and admired each others’ players.
“You cannot stop fans from supporting a player by arresting them,” he said. “Sport and politics should be kept apart and such incidents go against the principles of sportsmanship.”
Afridi himself landed in hot water with home fans for saying he got “more love” in India than he did in Pakistan, ahead of a crucial clash in the World Twenty20 in March.
In January a Pakistani fan was arrested for waving the flag of India after his idol Virat Kohli struck a match-winning knock against Australia.
Umar Daraz, 22, was charged with sedition and faced up to a decade in prison, but was later quiet ly released by of f ic ia l s i n t he cent ra l tow n of Okara