Virat Kohli has slammed Shahid Afridi for his comments on Kashmir.
India captain Virat Kohli and ex-skipper Kapil Dev on Wednesday criticised former Pakistan cricket captain Shahid Afridi for his comments on Kashmir.
Kapil Dev, who won India's first World Cup in 1983, said one should not give importance to people like Afridi. (Also Read: After Gautam Gambhir, Javed Akhtar hits out at Shahid Afridi over his Kashmir remarks)
"Who is he? Why are we giving importance to him? We should not be giving importance to certain people," Kapil said.
Whereas, Kohli, who is preparing for the upcoming 11th edition of the Indian Premier League, said he doesn't support Afridi's views.
"As an Indian you want to express what is best for your nation & my interests are always for the benefit of our nation. If anything opposes it, I would never support it for sure. But having said that, it's a very personal choice for someone to comment about certain issues. Unless I have total knowledge of the issues & the intricacies of it I don't engage in it but definitely your priority stays with your nation," Kohli said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Afridi had tweeted: "Appalling and worrisome situation ongoing in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. Innocents being shot down by oppressive regime to clamp voice of self determination & independence. Wonder where is the @UN & other int bodies & why aren't they making efforts to stop this bloodshed?"
Afridi's comments sparked an outrage on Twitter with people blasting the Pakistan all-rounder.
India opener Gautam Gambhir too mocked at Afridi by calling him a perennially immature person in a comical twitter war.
Gambhir said that Afridi's tweet on the current situation in Kashmir and his reference to United Nations was according to "his age bracket".
Gambhir and Afridi have a history of on-field run-ins when they were representing their respective countries.
It is not the first time that Gambhir has questioned Afridi's maturity. But the recent response by Gambhir has also that funny element as well as implied meaning about his nemesis.
This was not the first time that Afridi has made comments on Kashmir. Earlier during the 2016 World T20, which was hosted by India, Afridi caused an uproar for saying that a lot of support for their team at the 2016 World T20 came from people of Kashmir.
Afridi, who retired from international cricket in 2017, was slammed by the then BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur for his comments on Kashmir.
Afridi has played 27 Tests, 398 ODIs and 98 T20Is for for his country and is considered one of the best limited-overs all-rounders to have played the game for Pakistan.
Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads on the Kashmir issue since the partition in 1947 and have fought three wars over it.
