Akhtar stressed, hurt over negative publicity of his book

Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar is stressed and hurt due to the negative media publicity of his book 'Controversially Yours', co-author of the book Anshu Dogra has said.

The people have caught the only line where Shoaib had an out of context reference of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in the book, the co-author said, adding that they have given enough credit to the duo for the service they have rendered to the game," The Nation reports.

"Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid weren't exactly match winners to start with, nor did they know the art of finishing the game. This was Shoaib's initial impression (about them) which, over a passage of time, was not on his mind," Dogra added.

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram had earlier slammed Akhtar for claiming in his book that Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who is also referred to as the God of cricket, was afraid of his bowling.

"I don't think that a great player like Sachin or any batsman can get scared of a bowler. I think he can write anything to sell his book, but it does not make any difference to me, not it should bother Sachin," Akram added.

Akram had also refuted Akhtar's claims that he was responsible for destroying his career, saying that everybody knows that he was himself responsible for destroying it.

"I know, Shoaib knows and this is something that the whole world knows that he himself is responsible for ruining his career," he had added.