'Its funny how...': Congress' Abhishek Manu Singhvi jumps into debate over Shahid Afridi's big age revelation

Shahid Afridi's autobiography 'Game Changer', stayed quite true to its name after the former Pakistani cricketer left people perplexed on the revelation of his real age. 

Weighing in on the age-controversy, Congress party's Abhishek Singhvi called his disclosure the 'most open secret in the world' further went ahead to add how athletes in the subcontinent hide their age. 

In a tweet, the Congress leader said: Shahid Afridi has outed the most open secret in the world about his real age. It's funny how in the subcontinent athletes hide their age to compete in tournaments like U19s to get advantage. He played till 40 claiming to be 36.

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Shahid Afridi who is fondly addressed as 'Lala' has confessed that he was born in 1975 and not 1980 as stated in official records. Nonetheless, Afridi has not yet mentioned his date of birth. According to what he writes in his autobiography, the former all-rounder was 19 and not 16 when he had made his debut against Kenya back in 1996. He went on to add that the authorities had stated his age incorrectly. As of now, Afridi also holds the record of being the youngest player to score an ODI century at the age of 16 years and 217 days.

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The veteran of 27 Tests, 398 ODIs and 99 T20Is officially announced his retirement from the game in February 2017. Going by his year of birth which is 1975, Afridi might have been either 34 or 35 when he had announced his retirement from Test Cricket back in 2010. Nonetheless, he made his return to the game's longest format after a four-year hiatus to lead Pakistan. His comeback was short-lived as he only managed to make a solitary Test match appearance. This also means that Afridi might have been 40 or 41 when he played his last game for Pakistan at the ICC World T20 2016 instead of 36. 

The former all-rounder was a part of the victorious Pakistan squad that lifted its first and only ICC World T20 trophy. He also led the 'Men In Green' to the semifinals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.