Pakistan batter Iftikhar Ahmad on Thursday called out an X (Twitter) user over his alleged fake tweet which claimed that the cricketer called Indian players "street children".
A user named @Rnawaz31888 posted a tweet on August 11 in which he claimed that Ahmad said, "Whenever we have match against India it feels like we are playing with street children's".
But Ahmad immediately took to his own X account to clarify that he never said such a thing and urged Twitter boss Elon Musk to ban this particular account which is verified with a blue tick and has over 23,000 followers.
"I’ve been made aware of this statement which I’ve never made. In fact, no professional cricketer will make such a statement. Please stop circulating false news & report this individual for spreading hate.
"@X @elonmusk please ban this account as people are misusing the blue tick," Ahmad tweeted.
The X user @Rnawaz31888 later deleted his post and issued an apology to Ahmad, and also promised to be more careful about what he posts in future.
"I want to take this occasion to acknowledge my mistake and apologize to Iftikhar Ahmed. I didn't intend to hurt your reputation; my tweet was meant as sarcasm.
"I will be more careful from now on. I hope you all can forget what happened and move on. Everyone makes mistakes; I'm only human. JazakAllah and have a good day," the user tweeted.
India and Pakistan will be clashing against each other for the first time this year at the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 in Colombo on September 2.
The arch-rivals will also meet at the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 at the narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 14.
