‘Wanting Pak cricket back at top?’ - Shoaib Malik, Ramiz Raja engage in war of words over ‘retirement’

Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja and veteran Pakistan allrounder Shoaib Malik indulged in a war of words on social media after the former, in a recent interview, said that Malik and Mohammad Hafeez should retire gracefully from cricket. Malik, in a sarcastic tweet, hit out at Raja and asked if all three of them should retire by 2022. “Yes Ramiz Raja bhai agreed. Since all three of us are the end of our careers let’s retire gracefully together…I call and let’s plan this for 2022?,” Malik wrote on his official Twitter handle, tagging both Raja and Hafeez. 

Ramiz was quick to grasp on the sarcasm and questioned Malik on what he should retire from? “Retire gracefully .. from what ?.. speaking my mind on pak cricket? Sticking my neck out for pak cricket ? Wanting Pak cricket back at top ? No chance .. won’t be gracefully retiring from that ever Malik Sahib,” he wrote.

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He further went on to add that if Malik retired by 2022, he would nearly be as old as him. “As for ur post retirement plans Would be tough to start commentating in 2022 as that would make you my age almost,” he wrote. 

Raja further said that he himself had retired from Pakistan cricket as captain. “And talking of careers , don’t need a tutorial from u of all the ppl as history, which is a great teacher, would tell u that I retired while I was Captain of Pak team,” he said.

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Meanwhile, former Pakistan Test pacer Aaqib Javed, however, felt that until Pakistan found suitable replacements for the two seniors it was useless talking about their retirements. “Honestly speaking, I didn’t see any batting talent in the recent Pakistan Super League. It is obvious that our middle order is brittle in white ball cricket and tell me few names who we can use to replace Hafeez and Malik now,” Aaqib said on the GTV news channel.

Malik, 38, has been playing international cricket since 1999 while 39-year-old Hafeez made his debut in 2003.

(With PTI inputs)