‘Fast bowler with a sense of humour’: Gavaskar on Shoaib Akhtar

Both Sunil Gavaskar and Shoaib Akhtar were recently in news for their views on a bilateral series between India and Pakistan. The idea was coined by the Pakistani speedster in one of his YouTube videos where he put forth a suggestion of an only for TV series between the two countries to help raise funds to fight the coronavirus pandemic in both the countries.

The topic was discussed by Gavaskar and Ramiz Raja during a conversation in which the Indian legend had rejected the idea completely. “There are more chances of snowfall in Lahore than bilateral series between India and Pakistan. Both teams will keep on meeting in World Cups and ICC tournaments, but a series between them seem unlikely right now,” Gavaskar had said.

Not one to let someone else have the last word, Akhtar got back with a cheeky Twitter post. “Well Sunny bhai, we did have a snowfall in Lahore last year 🙂 So nothing is impossible.”

All is well between the two cricketers turned commentators since then and Gavaskar in fact lauded the Pakistani for his sense of humour.

“Requests keep coming in to join with them (former cricketers) to relive the old times and talk about how time is spent in the current self containment situation. It’s not easy which ones to accept and which to reject. I enjoyed the one I did with Ramiz Raja as we get along very well but what I enjoyed even more was Shoiab Akhtar’s superb comeback about my snowfall in Lahore comment. A fast bowler with a sense of humour. Wow, love that!” the former India captain wrote in his column Straight Drive in the daily Mid-Day.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)