Pakistani all-rounder Iftikhar Ahmed has revealed how he feels about being called “chachu” by cricket enthusiasts in a recent interview with Geo News.
Pakistani cricket fans would be well aware of this interesting thing about the national cricketers that almost all of them have nicknames.
While Pakistan skipper Babar Azam’s nick is “Bobby” and all-rounder Shadab Khan’s nickname is “Shaddy”, Pakistani power hitter Iftikhar is known as “chachu”.
Nevertheless, the word “chachu” which translates to “uncle” in English doesn’t sound very nice. It got the hype as Iftikhar looks older than his age, and had initially been used to troll the 32-year-old batter for not performing up to the expectations a couple of times.
However, Iftikhar says he loves being called by this name as he thinks now it was the cricket way of showing support for him.
“If I would tell honestly, I felt bad for the first time but now, I enjoy a lot when the crowd [shouts the name] like this,” he said.
The right-handed batter said that he feels the same spirit as former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi — who was also a power hitter — being called “Boom Boom” in the ground to cheer him up.
“I am seeing the crowd [animated in the same way] for me, so I feel happy,” Iftikhar said.
He added that being called “chachu” wasn’t something bad or abuse so he enjoys it.
“This crowd supports me and believe me, wherever I go, I get lot of love,” the cricketer said.
Separately, skipper Babar during a post-match press conference said that he sometimes feel embarrassed that Iftikhar was named after “a word” he had said.
However, he said that he believes it was good for Iftikhar as people were happy with him for his good performance in T20Is and ODIs alike.
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