Pakistan’s eminent cricket author and a former director at country’s cricket Board, Dr Nauman Niaz has sued former express fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar for one billion rupees on derogatory remarks on a television channel.

Niaz told Telecomasia he has sent a legal notice to Akhtar to publicly apologise on his remarks or face legal proceedings for damages of one billion Pakistan rupees (around 3.56 million dollars).

Nauman has a prominent career not only as a hepatologist with education form esteemed institutions of Australia and the UK but as a director of Sports at the state-owned Pakistan Television (PTV) brining in world’s top players for various transmissions. He has also written 14 books on cricket, the prominent being a history of Pakistan cricket.

“Yeh Dr. Nauman huamaray bags utatha (Dr Nauman Niaz basically used to carry our luggage for us in the team),” Shoaib said on a podcast which was widely projected at various social media platforms.

Both Akhtar and Dr Nauman have a history of clashes, the first being a spat on PTV transmission of the World Cup. As anchor of the show, Niaz had a verbal clash with Akhtar who was there as a guest. Niaz asked Akhtar to leave the show which he did. Later, after an intervention from a government official the two settled the issue.

It may be mentioned here that since the past two years, Dr Nauman has faced the wrath of government officials and has been on the sidelines in PTV. He is currently hosting a popular show “Caught Behind” with former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif on Youtube.

Akhtar, while reacting to the legal notice, said he has hired a leading lawyer to fight the case. “I have received a legally defective, unfounded, ego satisfying and utterly frivolous defamation notice from Nauman Niaz.