At a recent press event, Razzaq made a comparison to Rai while assessing Pakistan’s World Cup 2023 debacle, to which his former teammates Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi were seen laughing and clapping as fellow panellists.

Razzaq lambasted poor selection calls from the PCB by drawing a bizarre parallel to the actress: “Younis Khan had a good intention as a captain, and it gave me the confidence to perform better. Everyone over here is talking about the intention of the team. We don’t have good intentions to develop and polish players in Pakistan. If you think that marrying Aishwarya Rai would bear a good and pious kid, it would never happen.”

While Razzaq drew a lot of flak on social media for his words, Gul and Afridi have also come under criticism for their seemingly positive reactions to the comments. Following the backlash, Gul took to X (formerly Twitter) to denounce Razzaq’s remarks and stated that he and Afridi laughed sarcastically but did not endorse or appreciate the statement.

Dear brother, @SAfridiOfficial bhai and I did not clap in the clip to endorse what Abdul Razzaq said but it was in sarcasm. No1 there appreciated or endorsed what was said by him. It was ethically n morally wrong. Everyone has a different perspective and it’s always wrong to name…

— Umar Gul (@mdk_gul) November 14, 2023

The incident is not the first time an ex-Pakistan player’s comments on air made the headlines in this World Cup. Earlier in the tournament, Hasan Raza accused India of altering playing conditions and ball-tampering.