Nauman Niaz apologises to Shoaib Akhtar over ‘on-screen spat’

Islamabad: Cricket expert and renowned host Nauman Niaz has apologized to former Pakistani skipper Shoaib Akhtar over his verbal spat with the latter during a live transmission.

The sports anchor, reportedly, made an apology during a YouTube show on Thursday, where the broadcaster admitted that he was off beam.

Dr. Nauman admitted that the outburst of what he did on-air was justified. 

In his first comments after the controversy sparked anger around the globe, Niaz narrated his side of story saying, his father told him that he wasn’t expecting something like this from him (Nauman Niaz).

Nauman quoting his father said, “You made a mistake as Shoaib is national star, you should’ve taken care of the incident”.

This incident has hogged the limelight in the world of cricket, following which, Niaz also said that he is ready to apologize to Akhtar in front of the entire country as he consider himself obliged to do so.  

Speaking on the issue, Niaz admitted that he should have handled the situation better.

“Whatever the reason, I had no right to do all this on-air, it was my fault. Shoaib Akhtar is a star and I love his cricket,” said Niaz.

In the meantime, cricketer turned analyst Shoaib Akhtar said that he had forgiven Dr Nauman Niaz, for the sake of Pakistan.

The bizarre incident took place on state-owned TV channel in October which had sparked anger among cricket fans.

In the on-air argument, the host had told the cricket star to leave the show in the presence of acclaimed cricket personalities including, Sir Viv Richards and David Gower.