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Shoaib rejects film offer

May 15, 2005 13:59 IST

Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar has rejected an offer from Indian film maker Mahesh Bhatt, saying that his first love was cricket and his fans wanted to see him as a cricket star, not a movie star.

"I love cricket and want to concentrate on it. I have absolutely no intention of featuring in films," he was quoted by local daily The News as saying.

"It (report of him acting in a film) is absolutely rubbish. I have nothing to do with films. I want to fully concentrate on my cricket which is my bread and butter," he said.

Akhtar, discarded for Pakistan's tour of the West Indies reportedly on the basis of his fitness, said all cricketers get offers to act in films and he has been receiving such offers for the last six years.

"For the last six years I have been getting such offers and so do players like Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik," he said.

"I do not want any distractions as I am at the peak of my cricketing career," he said adding that he was serious about staging a comeback into the team.

Akhtar said players like players of yesteryears, Imran Khan and Wasim Akram too got fil offers. "The offers or someone talking about it does not mean that the players are serious in featuring movies," he said.

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