An unwanted controversy

As things stand now Afridi is set to go to court after serving a legal notice to his former coach Miandad

Time and again certain sections of the electronic media have exploited the volatile temperament of some of our celebrities for creating unnecessary sensationalism, and another ugly episode is doing the rounds for the last couple of days.

At a supposed book launch ceremony where no media talk or interaction was planned a reporter asked the mercurial Shahid Afridi what he has to say in response to the legendary batsman Javed Miandad’s take that the all rounder was seeking a farewell match purely for monetary gains. Afridi being his true self shot back in jest making the claim that it was in fact Miandad who had run after money all his life and that was the difference between him and Imran Khan, the cheeky cricketer with his knack of attracting controversies and added that the reporter should be happy now since he had given him a ‘breaking news.’

Within moments the ‘breaking news’ flashed on all the news channels around the country, all of a sudden Javed Miandad was the most sought-after individual in the country since of course it was now his time to take an almighty swipe at Afridi. And Miandad didn’t disappoint the sensationalists and in fact put the icing on their cake by making an outrageous claim that Afridi was in fact a ‘fixer’ who had sold his country. The furious Miandad didn’t relent and expressed his views on almost every leading news channel in Pakistan, not known for backing down even a tad in his playing days; the street fighter from Karachi is the last person to cow down in such a situation.

As things stand now Afridi is set to go to court after serving a legal notice to his former coach and mentor and a defamation suit might also follow. But like most electronic media-fuelled controversies this one is not expected to last for long either, an out- of-court ‘settlement’ is likely in the next few days and soon the same bunch of sensationalists will start their search for their next ‘breaking news.’

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.