Ever since his retirement from the game, Shahid Afridi has maintained a love-hate relationship with India. He had expressed his disappointment after Article 370 was abrogated. The ex Pakistan skipper was also seen in a lot of social media battles with Gautam Gambhir. Now, Shahid Afridi has blamed IPL for a rather bizarre reason. 

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Shahid Afridi blames IPL

Shahid Afridi was a part of the now-defunct Deccan Chargers during the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, he has now come forward and accused the premier franchise tournament of threatening the Sri Lankan players to not award them contracts should they tour Pakistan and that is the reason why the players are backing out of the tour. 

"Sri Lankan players are under pressure from IPL franchises. I spoke to Sri Lankan players last time when there was talk of them coming to Pakistan and playing in PSL. They said they wanted to come, but IPL guys say if you go to Pakistan we won't give you a contract," claimed Shahid Afridi.

 

 "Pakistan's always supported Sri Lanka, it never happened that we had a tour of Sri Lanka and our players rested. Sri Lanka's board should put pressure on their contracted players to go to Pakistan. Sri Lankan players who'll come will always be remembered in Pakistan's history", he added.

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The video of Shahid Afridi accusing IPL was posted on social media. 

Watch the video here: 

Here are a couple of screenshots of Afridi's statements.

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Shahid Afridi hails Virat Kohli

Earlier, Shahid Afridi had hailed Virat Kohli and wished him success for the future after the Indian skipper had scored an unbeaten match-winning 52-ball 72 in the 2nd T20I against South Africa in Mohali on Wednesday and registered yet another successful run-chase for the Men in Blue. Kohli was adjudged Man of the Match for his splendid knock. 

Read Afridi's tweet here:

Shahid Afridi's cricketing career

Shahid Afridi has been one of Pakistan's biggest match-winners. While it is well known that Afridi is destructive with the bat as he possesses the ability to hit sixes at will, he is also effective with ball as well. Shahid Afridi holds the record of the most sixes in One Day Internationals (351) which is also the most number of maximums in international cricket. Shahid Afridi had bid adieu to international cricket in 2016.

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