I only started watching cricket from late 90s onwards but the little I know about the history of the game, I can very confidently claim that 90s was probably the most glorious era in Cricket. I was fortunate to have witnessed the era when cricket boomed and we had legends playing in pretty much each of the top 8 sides in Cricket. Even Zimbabwe had a great in Flower.
I was even more fortunate to have witnessed a player that touched everyone of us's hearts in a manner I again confidently claim no cricketer has ever done before to his fans and that of course was our very own little master Sachin Tendulkar. We grew with Sachin's career. Here I was gradually passing from one class to the other in school, college and university and there Sachin was in the field breaking records after records.
It was an era of icons, of course all good things come to an end one day and eventually all these stars of 90s started retiring one after another and here I was feeling like Lord Voldemort in HP seeing his horcruxes getting destroyed. Voldemort's soul remained alive in his 7 horcruxes and my soul as a young die hard cricket fan remained alive in these legends of 90s.
You may be wondering where is Afridi in all this but here we come, it is March 2016 and the last living superstar of the 90s is about to play his final tournament. Whatever I wrote above has to be said to understand the feeling in mine as well as my brother and idol Shahid Afridi's heart right now. A heart that melted seeing supposedly hostile fans of a supposedly enemy nation in total awe of him leading to him saying what he said, words that got taken out of context by people who don't feel much but think too much.
The greatest problem of our time. People these days unfortunately just aren't patient and peaceful enough to think rationally. What Afridi said were the words of a kid who lived the Pakistan dream for 20 years and is about to finally retire. Afridi needs our support, our encouragement. Regardless of his countless achievements we still don't claim too much about him as a player but I just request people to be respectful. Afridi is the last of the stars.
As a passionate and patriotic Indian I have loved to hate and diss Pakistani players and fans, all on good competitive spirit but when these Akhtars, Afridis are no more, even I feel discouraged to indulge in banter. Afridi's that spark who's kept the interest of the average fans alive in an era when there weren't any real stars. Last 5-10 years of Palistan cricket have been your poorest in terms of talent and achievements and yet Afridi's kept the interest alive. Respect him for that.
He's not an oxford intellectual. He's been into cricket from his early teens. He did not get to develop on his soft skills early in his career but he's shown a good honest heart even when he behaved outrageously. His name never appeared in match fixing. His name never appeared in drug abuse. I don't know what people really want from Afridi. It seems like no matter what he does, a certain lobby is always waiting there to pounce on him and bash him. Give it up. 20 years of Shahid Afridi!
The countdown clock is ticking. Afridi looks emotional and tense, he needs your encouragement now more than ever before. I thought what Afridi said was the statement of a mature leader who wants to settle things as quickly as possible and divert the attention to cricket from all the negativity and politics. As an Indian, I thought it was sweet and Afridi bhai we totally appreciate you for that and let me honestly tell you I am sure millions of Indians and not just me alone love you just as much and probably more than we love some of our players.
I will pray we get you out brother because you scare us to death with your presence. A lion is a lion, old or young.
But my prayers are always with you. Do well, may god bless you and always be the same Afridi!
Jai Sri Ram!
)
You started it though, I was responding in the same tone just to make it clearer for you to see 
