Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar accused the ICC of not being neutral after the apex body gave a cheeky reply to Akhtar’s claims that he can dismiss Australia’s Steve Smith in a jiffy.
Akhtar had taken to social media to respond to a poll on ESPNCricinfo that pitted some of the best in the business from the previous era with bowlers and batsmen from the modern-day.
Responding to the post that had pitted Akhtar against Smith, the Pakistani said, “Even today, 3 hurting bouncers and I can dismiss @stevesmith49 on the 4th ball. Lol.”
The International Cricket Council used a series of images featuring basketball star Michael Jordan to pull Akhtar’s leg after he claimed that he can get Smith out on the fourth delivery after three “hurting” bouncers.
Akhtar, 44, tweeted on Wednesday saying that he was not amused by the ICC response.
One of the fastest bowlers the game has seen, Akhtar posted an old video of himself and captioned it: “Dear @icc, find a new meme or Emoji. Sorry i couldn’t find any, only found some real videos.”
The cricketer has been caught up in several controversies since his retirement from the game.
Akhtar represented Pakistan in 46 Tests, 163 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 15 Twenty20 Internationals while taking 178 wickets, 247 wickets and 19 wickets respectively in each format.
The former pacer, who has been served a defamation notice by the legal counsel of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Tafazzul Rizvi, told the media that his lawyer had sent the reply to the notice.
“He has rejected Rizvi’s notice and its contents. Like I said I am going to fight this case till the end because I have done nothing wrong by highlighting the weak areas in the PCB working.
(With PTI inputs)
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