Gavaskar in his interview to an Indian news agency, said that emotions are always running high when Pakistan and India face each other.
He added that Afridi’s remarks were a smart way to soothe down the hostility of the Indian crowd towards the green shirts.
“What Shahid Afridi said, he has obviously got reactions in Pakistan, but I look at it as a good way to ensure less hostility towards the Pakistan team,” he added.
“You say nice things about Indian public; maybe you mean it, maybe you don’t mean it. But what it will do, it will certainly help as far as the crowd is concerned. The crowd will not be overly hostile to Afridi and the Pakistani team. That can actually work well for Pakistan,” Gavaskar said.
He added that playing in hostile environment may help a team in the match.
“It can work sometimes and you can actually lift your game to such an extent that you want to silence the hostile crowd,” the former cricketer said.
He went on to say, “Or sometimes it can have the opposite effect where you just get so overwhelmed by the hostility that you don’t play your natural game and end up playing into the crowd’s hand.”
The former Indian captain said that Afridi is somebody who speaks his heart, he doesn’t mince his words and he probably was speaking from his experience of playing in India.
