‘I am a fighter & will not give up’: Shoaib Akhtar ‘disappointed’ after receiving recovery notice

After the on-air spat between Pakistan TV anchor Nauman Niaz and Shoaib Akhtar, the former cricketer has received a notice from the channel. Taking to his official Twitter handle, the former pacer revealed that he has received a recovery notice from the PTV channel and vowed to fight the legal battle. In common terms, recovery notice is a legal notice for the recovery of money. 

“Utterly Disappointed. After miserably failing to safeguard my respect & repute while i was working for PTV, they have now sent me a Recovery Notice. I am a fighter & will not give up & fight this legal battle. My lawyer will take this forward according to law,” Akhtar wrote on his Twitter. 

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Recently, in one of the shows during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, Akhtar was told on-air by anchor Niaz to leave and former pacer immediately announced that he is resigning as PTV’s cricket analyst. Cricket legends like Sir Viv Richards, David Gower, Rashid Latif, Aaqib Javed, Azhar Mahmood, Umar Gul and Sana Mir were also present. 

In the aftermath, the anchor offered an “unconditional” apology to Akhtar, however, he also added that the cricketer took the channel for “granted”. 

During a YouTube interaction, Niaz told fellow journalist Rauf Klasra, “The repercussions of my on-air outburst are totally fair. To err is human, that should not have happened and for that, I can apologise for not only once but a million times.”

However, he had even revealed that the details of Shoaib’s contract, as he said, “Shoaib was contracted with us on a yearly basis and we pay him a very handsome salary on the basis of exclusivity. Before the World Cup Shoaib came to me and had sought a pay raise which was eventually settled in a meeting with the channel’s managing director.”

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“Later on Oct 17, Shoaib was supposed to take part in the transmission, but he left for Dubai and participated in a show there with Harbhajan Singh. He then committed to come back for the PTV transmission a couple of days later but didn’t turn up,” the anchor added. 

Niaz said that clause-5 of the former bowler’s contract outright barred him from taking part in any other talk show, however, he participated in other shows during this period.