[Watch] Shoaib Akhtar blasts Twitterati for targeting Sania Mirza after Pakistan's loss to India

While the drama over Sania Mirza's Twitter altercation with Veena Malik continues to interest everyone and the Indian tennis star remains a favourite target for fans disappointed by their team's performance, former Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar has come out to defend her.

The 'Rawalpindi Express' lambasted people who have been training their guns on the wife of Shoaib Malik and censured them for putting the blame of Pakistan's poor showing on her. "Sania Mirza is that unfortunate lady, who, whatever she does, gets criticised, unnecessarily, from both India and Pakistan. She is needlessly criticised. She just went out with her husband to have a meal, she just had a child, she has just gone to meet her husband! What crime has she committed? They were not sitting there at 6 AM," the former fast bowler exhorted on his YouTube channel.

Speaking further on the issue, Akhtar expressed his sympathy for the ordeal that the Indian tennis star had to go through. "Poor lady, she gets criticised in India for marrying a Pakistani and when Pakistan loses the match, then again she gets blamed. How can you talk about somebody's family in this way? I cannot understand how can you point a finger at somebody's family just because you have the right to have a Twitter or any other social media handle.

"Brother, she is his wife, she just had a child, she hadn't met her for the last two months; she was struggling to meet her husband; she just went to meet; she is staying at her own hotel, he is staying at his own hotel. If he hasn't performed, what has Sania got to do with? She hasn't told him not to play well for Pakistan. I really feel sorry for her. I feel very sad that this poor lady is unnecessarily being trashed."

The former Pakistani tearaway fast bowler concluded by heavily criticising those members of the public who blamed Mirza for the failures of her husband and asserted that targeting somebody's family is unacceptable. "It is just stupid, stupid comments and stupid mentality which hurts me a lot. Please think twice before talking about somebody's family and somebody's wife. You have no right to talk about somebody's family."