Shoaib Akhtar says ICC has ‘thrown neutrality out of the window’ after being trolled by apex body

Karachi: The flamboyant Shoaib Akhtar has accused the International Cricket Council of “throwing neutrality out of the window” after being trolled by the apex body for claiming that he can, even now, dismiss Australian run-machine Steve Smith in a jiffy. The ICC used a series of images featuring basketball star Michael Jordan to troll Akhtar after he claimed that he can get Smith out on the fourth delivery after three “hurting” bouncers. In the ICC’s first picture Jordan looks down at something. In the next image, it is revealed as Akhtar’s tweet, and third one shows the legendary basketball player laughing. Akhtar, 44, tweeted on Wednesday that he was not amused by the ICC response.

“A symbolic tweet, how ICC has thrown neutrality out of the window. Basically this is how the state of affairs are run there,” Akhtar tweeted. One of the fastest bowlers the game has seen, Akhtar posted an old video of himself and captioned it: “Dear @icc, find a new meme or Emoji. Sorry, I couldn’t find any, only found some real videos.” Earlier, Akhtar had taken to social media to respond to a poll on ESPNCricinfo that pitted some of the best in the business from the previous era with bowlers and batsmen from the modern-day. Responding to the post that had pitted Akhtar against Smith, the Pakistani said, “Even today, 3 hurting bouncers and I can dismiss @stevesmith49 on the 4th ball. Lol.”

The cricketer has been caught up in several controversies since his retirement from the game.

Akhtar represented Pakistan in 46 Tests, 163 ODIs and 15 T20 Internationals while taking 178 wickets, 247 wickets and 19 wickets respectively in each format. The former pacer, who has been served a defamation notice by the legal counsel of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Tafazzul Rizvi, told the media that his lawyer had sent the reply to the notice. “He has rejected Rizvi’s notice and its contents. Like I said, I am going to fight this case till the end because I have done nothing wrong by highlighting the weak areas in PCB’s working.”