Author: Wasim Sarwar

Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers hit back at the Indian media for misrepresenting his comments on Hardik Pandya.

While commenting on the captaincy of Mumbai Indians captain Pandya in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, De Villiers called him a brave captain, but Indian media has taken his statement out of context.

In a video posted on X (Formerly Twitter) AB de Villiers said, “I see there’s a lot of activity on X about the comments that I made about Hardik Pandya and Mumbai Indians, and it’s a shame that journalism and reporting has got so low. And I’m very happy that some of you have pointed that out. Taking some of my comments and leaving the rest out.”

“I very clearly stated and I will state this again, I absolutely love the way Hardik Pandya plays his game. I love the way he captains. All I was saying is his style of captaincy is something he has certainly worked on. It’s not something he can just walk out of a door and you are a brave captain, he decided,” De Villiers added.

Slamming Indian reporters, the smashing batsman opined, “I wish that you reporters out there would see it for that and write about stuff like that, because that’s actually really powerful. Sometimes you have to put up a front and to show the opposition you are a force to be reckoned with. And that’s what Hardik Pandya does. Well. And I’m saying that style is not always the easiest style to adapt to, especially for some senior players.”

The leadership of Mumbai Indians was handed over from Rohit Sharma to Hardik Pandya, but the performance of Mumbai Indians under his captaincy was very poor and they became the first team to be eliminated from the event.

Despite a star-studded line-up in the ongoing IPL, the five-time champions have struggled under the leadership of Hardik and are ninth in the points table with just four wins out of 13 matches so far.

Pakistani boxer Ilyas Hazara defeated Indian boxer Gurjant Singh in the Big Time Boxing Tournament held in Melbourne, Australia.

Ilyas Hazara raised Pakistan’s flag by easily beating Gurjant Singh and winning the trophy along with the gold medal.

Earlier, Balochistan’s Shahzaib Rind won the tournament by defeating India’s Rana Singh in the finals of the Combat Karate competition held in Dubai last month.

Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Lucknow Super Giants’ owner Sanjiv Goenka got angry with captain KL Rahul after a humiliating defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Sunrisers defeated the Supergiants team by 10 wickets in an important match, giving a blow to the chances of qualifying to the play-off stage.

At the end of the match, Lucknow Supergiants owner Sanjeev Goenka lashed out at the team captain KL Rahul. A video of the altercation is going viral on social media.

In the video, it can be seen that Sanjeev Goenka is scolding captain KL Rahul for the worst defeat while the captain is listening to his words with courage.

Supergiants managed to score 165 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in the allotted 20 overs, while Sunrisers Hyderabad achieved the target without any loss in just 9.4 overs.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has recently revealed the jersey for T20 World Cup 2024, a very different one to the jersey worn by India during the World Cup 2023.

The new jersey contains prominent blue and orange colors, becoming a source of memes on social media. Cricket fans are comparing this jersey with Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’s Jethalal’s JPL team.

Here are some reactions on social media:

A video of Bangladesh cricketer Shakib Al Hasan has gone viral in which he can be seen abusing one of his fans ago is trying to take a selfie.

The incident took place ahead of the Dhaka Premier League (DPL) 2024 match between Sheikh Jamal Dhanmundi Club (SJDC) and Prime Bank Cricket Club.

In the video, it can be seen that before the toss, Shakib Al Hassan is talking to the head coach, Sheikh Salahuddin. A young man tries to take a selfie with Shakib Al Hasan while Shakib Al Hasan tries to take away his mobile phone. The fan is pushed back, grabbing him by the neck, then at the same time try to slap him.

Shakib was previously involved in controversies with players and umpires.

In 2015, in Bangladesh Premier League, Shakib vented his anger on an umpire, after which he was banned for one match also a fine of $250 was imposed on him.

On October 2010, Shakib threatened to hit a member of ground staff with a bat for moving the sightscreen in front of him during a Bangladesh-New Zealand ODI.

On October 2019, Shakib was banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for failing to report an approach from a bookie. He returned after the ban in January 2021.

Pakistan cricket team leg spinner Usman Qadir has revealed the dirty politics in Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

In a recent interview on YouTube channel ‘Hafiz Muhammad Imran’ Usman Qadir said, “When I got injured in a bilateral series against England, PCB forcefully took me to the New Zealand tour.”

“I was not allowed to bowl in the nets and was asked to get an additional X-ray test instead. My X-rays showed two fractures while I initially was diagnosed with just one fracture.”

He said, “PCB hired an Australian doctor for staging a conspiracy as his refusal to declare me fit led to the exclusion from Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad in 2022.”

Later, Usman Qadir said, “The Australian doctor admitted his error. However, I was already dropped from the Pakistan team.”

Qadir claims to have evidence of the conspiracy, but he couldn’t defend himself because nobody on the board or the team listened to him.

An 11-year-old boy died after being hit by a ball on the groin while playing cricket in Pune, India.

According to Indian media reports, sixth grade Pune student Shambhu Kalidas was playing cricket with his siblings at a local club when the ball hit him in the groin.

In a video that has surfaced on social media, it can be seen that Shambhu was bowling when the powerful shot played by the batsman hit him directly. As the ball hits, Shambhu collapses in pain and his friends rush to his aid.

Shambhu was immediately rushed to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

The police say that the actual cause of death will be revealed after an autopsy, however, the police have registered a case of accidental death of the boy.

Popular video game PUBG Mobile apologises to Muslim players for using Islamic calligraphy in the game, which some users found offensive.

PUBG Mobile recently found itself deep in controversy after Muslim players raised concerns regarding the use of Islamic calligraphy in the game. Muslim users complained that the use of Islamic calligraphy in the game was unnecessary and could hurt religious sentiment.

Pakistan PUBG mobile creators are stressing that PUBG mobile terminate the contract with the team who designed the theme, and also create a review team to avoid the issue from recurring again.

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In response to the backlash, PUBG Mobile issued an apology message on Instagram saying, “Dear PUBG MOBILE Players, We would like to address the concerns raised over an unintentionally used image of Islamic calligraphic art in one of our recent promotional videos. We are deeply sorry that it offended some of our users. We understand the importance of respecting different religious beliefs and sensitivities and hence we have removed that asset.”

“We value and respect all religions and strive to create a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. We will continue to listen to our users as we improve our game development and vetting exercise to ensure our game is sensitive to the different religions, cultures, and practices of our users. We thank our users for bringing this to our attention and help us improve our content.”

Earlier, PUBG mobile was under fire for using an ‘Illuminati sign’ on an ultimate suit.