Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi is received in the Saudi Gazette newsroom by Mahmoud Ahmad, Managing Editor (Kingdom and Gulf), during his courtesy visit to the newspaper's office in Jeddah, Sunday. — SG photo by Amer Hilabi Mahmood Hasan Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Pakistan cricket all-rounder and former captain Shahid Afridi is emulating another great Pakistan all-rounder and former captain Imran Khan off the field. Like Imran, Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Afridi too aims to walk the humanitarian road by building a basic hospital in his native village of Tangi Banda near Kohat. While Imran built a state-of-the-art cancer hospital and research center in memory of his mother Shaukat Khanum, Afridi is taking small steps to realize his father's dream of a health center in his village. Afridi's planned 40-bed hospital will be funded by his family and be named after his late father, Sahabzada Fazal Rehman. The charismatic cricketer, who is visiting the Kingdom to select a pool of players for the Saudi Cricket Centre (SCC), spoke enthusiastically to Saudi Gazette about the basic health project. He bowled a googly on Indian great Sachin Tendulkar, who chose to call time on his ODI career just before the Pakistan-India tour, while batted for the beleaguered Indian captain M.S. Dhoni, who has been hounded by the “so-called” experts following the recent losses at home. “I would have loved to see Tendulkar play Pakistan one last time. I do not know why he opted to quit,” he said, especially since Tendulkar made his ODI debut in 1989 against Pakistan. It would have been a great way to call it quits with a game with Pakistan, he said.
