Former Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar was among the panelists who were discussing Pakistani Team performance after India demolished the arch-rivals on 15th February 2026. The discussion got digressed for a moment when the ABP anchor Romana Isar Khan criticised the PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi with phrases like “Trophy Chor” referring to his act of withholding the Asia Cup 2025 trophy from Team India for months.
Hearing the criticism, Shoaib Akhtar, warned the anchor and stated in strong tone that he would react very harshly if the anchor will use phrases like “Trophy Stealer” for the PCB Chairman.
ABP Anchor: “We see Mohsin Naqvi as Trophy Stealer. This is the truth. Here we think of him like this.”
Shoaib Akhtar: “No, no… you can’t use words like these for him. It’s not just Shoaib — Pakistan is present on your channel. You can’t talk about him like this. This is wrong.”
Shoaib Akhtar: “Whatever it is, but you shouldn’t call him a thief or use phrases like that in front of me. Let’s talk about the match. I was famous for being batameez on the field… please don’t do this with me. Don’t do this — otherwise I will confront you very harshly.”
Speaking about the India and Pakistan match, Akhtar admits that there is a massive talent gap between both countries and that Pak cricket has been on decline for the last two decades. He opines that while Moshin Naqvi is a good hard working man but is surrounded by incompetent subordinates.
“Shouldn’t have played India” : Shoaib Akhtar after Pakistan loses 8th T20 match against India in the last 9 matches
Before the World Cup, Pakistan had made a shocker announcement of boycotting the match against India on 15th Feb as a way to show solidarity with the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Tensions arose when BCCI directed the KKR team to release Mustafizur Rahman when news emerged few months ago that the Hindus were targetted in Bangladesh where they suffered massively.
In the hopes of giving Tit for Tat, Bangladesh cited fake security concerns as the reason for boycotting India for their T20 WC matches. The ICC did a thorough check of the security concern and did not find any concern for the Bangladeshi team to travel India. Bangladesh persisted but eventually ICC made the decision to keep them out of the T20 WC and included Namibia as their replacement.
Pakistan remained on their stance until the 9th Feb where they took the expected U-Turn and agreed to play India.
During the match analysis on the ABP Channel, Shoaib Akhtar opined that Pakistan should have stayed on their stance to not play India on 15th Feb.
“Where I felt wrong was the fact that if the decision was taken to not play India, if there was someone like me, I would have stick to that decision. Once we had reached super 8, then we could have thought about playing India if the match would have come. We won diplomatically. We forced two of the ICC Members to come to Pakistan and have a word with us. If I would have been there with the PCB chairman, I would have advised him to skip this match. I don’t know who made the U Turn, whether it came from Pakistan government or PCB, I would have told them to stick to their stance now and not play India on 15th Feb.”
— Shoaib Akhtar on ABP News
Hearing Shoaib’s opinion, the anchor Romana Isar Khan reminded Shoaib that the PCB is in dire needs of revenue and that skipping India match would have costed them dearly. Shoaib denied the reality of PCB’s financial strain and opined that Pakistan can survive without playing cricket to India. The two engaged in heated exchange and Shoaib looked visibly frustrated when the anchor reminded Shoaib of Pakistan’s ground reality.
