Fast-bowling legend Wasim Akram has called for "appropriate mediation" in a war of words between former skippers Shahid Afridi and Javed Miandad over the former's demand for a farewell T20 International match.

Akram said on Twitter it was "really sad" to see the altercation between the veteran cricketers, adding that the situation called for a quick resolution "instead of this unwanted chaos".

"Javed Bhai and Shahid mean a lot to me and to Pakistan," he wrote.

An unusually fiery verbal altercation erupted between Afridi and Miandad on Sunday with both the former Pakistan captains accusing each other of being money-centric.

Responding to Miandad's reported remark "that Afridi wants a farewell match only for the money", Afridi hit out at him saying: "Money has always been an issue with Miandad. That is the difference between him and Imran Khan."

He later said he regretted his words for Miandad "but of course I had to eventually react to his behaviour".

The exchange continued when Miandad claimed that Afridi had fixed matches in the past, Dawn newspaper reported.

“I ask Afridi to swear [solemnly] that he didn’t sell Pakistan [reference to fixing international matches]; I’m the witness to it and I have even caught him [Afridi]. People like him are fixers. Money to me is nothing; had it not been the case, I wouldn’t have myself left the [national team],” Miandad, who retired after the 1996 World Cup, fumed while talking to a private TV channel.

The matter of Afridi’s farewell match has been in the news ever since the veteran all-rounder said he deserved a farewell T20 International.

Interestingly, the 36-year-old Afridi, who possesses a vast experience of 98 T20 Internationals besides having played a Pakistan record 398 One Day International matches before quitting the 50-over game after last year’s World Cup, had told the Pakistan Cricket Board that he would retire after this year’s World T20 (held in India in March-April).

However, even after Pakistan faced an embarrassing first-round exit, Afridi — deviating from his earlier word — expressed his intention to continue to play T20 Internationals.

He recently said he will meet PCB executive committee chairman Najam Sethi (on the matter of farewell game), adding “I will see what the Board wants to do”.

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