Waqar Younis asks Afridi & Gambhir to 'calm down..behave smartly

NEW DELHI: Pakistan bowling coach Waqar Younis, in a freewheeling chat with GloFans, spoke about the ongoing social media battle between former India opener Gautam Gambhir and Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi and asked them to calm down.

When asked by cricket fans in a unique Q&A based chat show 'Q20' on GloFans' twitter handle, Waqa said he has been observing the sharp reactions on social media, which have been deplorable and distasteful.

"The banter between Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi has been going on for a while now. I think they both got to be smart, sensible and calm down. It has been going on for way too long. My advice to them is to maybe catch up somewhere around the world and talk it out if you cannot really calm it down," Waqar said.

"In social media, if you carry on (like) that, people are going to love it and people are enjoying it and that I feel that they both should be sensible and smart."

The last time both the countries played a bilateral cricket series was back in 2012-13. Responding to another GloFans' question on bilateral ties, Waqar said: "If you go and ask people of both the countries on whether Pakistan and India should play each other, everyone, around 95% of them will agree, that cricket between these two should be played.

"Be it "Imran-Kapil Series" or "Independence Series" or whatever name we give to it, I think that it would be the biggest hit of the world. I think Pakistan and India should play, and should play on a regular basis to avoid depriving cricket lovers of India and Pakistan," he said.

"I do see Pakistan and India playing bilateral series. I am not sure where though, but I hope it will be either in Pakistan or in India. You don't want to see them playing in some other country because that's where you want to see them. You want to see them playing in their own countries. But I definitely say that in the next few years, I would say, Pakistan India will be playing."

Waqar Younis is the second cricketing legend who spoke to fans on the official twitter platform @GloFansOfficial after David Gower. IANS