‘Rawalpindi Express’ Shoaib Akhtar on Friday took to his Youtube channel to clear the air about rumours flying around pertaining to a potential affair between him and Indian actress, Sonali Bendre.
The speedster recorded a lengthy video slamming what he called “baseless rumours” that reported how he was allegedly “in love” with Bendre, and carried a photo of her around in his wallet and even “planned on kidnapping her”.
Clearing the air, Akhtar said, “I haven’t ever even met Sonali Bendre and at the same time, I was never a fan. I’ve seen her in movies and she’s a beautiful woman but I’ve never been a diehard fan. When I heard she was unwell (Bendre was diagnosed with cancer last year) and she courageously fought her disease, that’s when I became a fan. Previously, there were also rumours about me wanting to marry Dia Mirza — I’ve never met her either!”
He also spoke in support of Sania Mirza, the tennis-star wife of cricketer Shoaib Malik, who was trolled for a widely circulating video of the green shirts sitting at a sheesha bar in Manchester, which some falsely claimed to be hours before the high-voltage fixture between arch-foes India and Pakistan.
The PCB, in a statement the following day, cleared that it was from two nights ago. Irrespective, people’s grievances were that the team took the match lightly and were ill-prepared and Mirza was blamed for it.
“She gets criticism for no reason. If she went out for dinner with her husband, how is that a crime? When she married Shoaib Malik, she got hate then and now that Pakistan lost, somehow she’s getting criticism for that. What does their performance have to do with her? These stupid comments and stupid mentality are really hurtful, please refrain from talking about other people’s families,” he added.
