Indo-Pak bilateral cricket series have stopped for almost a decade, thanks to political tensions between the neighbouring countries. But that hasn’t come in the way of cricketers and filmstars of the two nations being on good terms.
Shoaib Akhtar, a feared Pakistan pacer who once terrorized batsmen with his pace and aggression, was known to be friendly with a number of Indian cricketers. And when he was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team in the early years of IPL, Shoaib was on good terms with franchise co-owner Shah Rukh Khan as well as Bollywood Bhaijan Salman Khan.
Many talk of Shoaib, who has gone on record as saying that he would like Salman to play his biopic if and when someone makes it, being spotted with Salman in a rare appearance in Mumbai once. The two reportedly ran shirtless on the streets of Bandra in Mumbai.
Shoaib clarified what actually happened in an interview with Sportskeeda.
“We were at this place… myself, Katrina Kaif and Salman… Salman had asked me to eat with him before leaving. Salman being Salman, if you are not wearing a watch, he’ll give you one, if your shirt is dirty because of the party, he’ll give you a new one. He just gave me a shirt that day, we had a similar size. I returned to Lahore after that… Then I see the news that ‘Salman Khan and Shoaib Akhtar ran shirtless in Bandra’,” Shoaib said.
The ‘news’ spread like wildfire in Pakistan.
“Even Shah Rukh called me and asked if we did it. I told him such incident happened where we raced shirtless or anything… It was fake news but it was all over in Pakistan,” Shoaib added.
Known as the ‘Rawalpindi Express’ during his playing days, Shoaib hopes to return to India some day for cricket-related activities the way he used to a few years ago.
