Destination Bollywood threatens to derail ‘Rawalpindi Express’

The story, first reported by a South African newspaper and then picked up by the Islamabad-based The News, goes that Akhtar was ruled out of the Test series against South Africa in the last week of December and told to return home.

But he took one whole week to make that journey from South Africa to Pakistan: there he was smiling out of the pages of a Durban newspaper on December 25, rubbing shoulders with film stars like Dutt and Bachchan.

Bachchan, along with Dutt, Shah Rukh Khan, Sushmita Sen and Hrithik Roshan were in Durban to perform at a concert. The entire Pakistan cricket team had reportedly been invited to the event, but the Indo-Pak chill kept all of them away — except, it appears, the Rawalpindi Express.

A report in South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper, headlined ‘Bollywood bad boy paints the town red’ talks about spotting Dutt and Akhtar at the tony Rivets bar at Hilton Hotel in Durban on Dec 25. ‘‘Dutt was shooting whisky like there was no tomorrow’’, a hotel employee told the Times.

‘‘The bad boy of Indian cinema, Sanjay Dutt, snubbed his hosts and painted the town red with Pakistani fast bowler Akhtar during his brief stay in Durban last week. Hours after arriving in Durban on Christmas Day, Dutt and Akhtar were spotted at one of the city’s most exclusive bars…’’ the report said.

Dutt and Akhtar later dined with Bachchan at the Zulu Legends restaurant in Musgrave Road, the report added. ‘‘When Shoaib’s photographs appeared in the press I was surprised. I immediately informed the PCB chairman about this and the PCB asked him to return home immediately,’’ Brigadier (retd) Khawaja Nasir, the outgoing manager of the team, noted in his report to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Nasir told The News, ‘‘I’ve let the PCB know about my experiences in Zimbabwe and South Africa. I’ve also outlined the Shoaib case to them.’’

Akhtar’s defence: he stayed on in Durban because ‘‘after undergoing medical tests in Johannesburg I had to wait for the reports which were delayed because of the Christmas holidays,’’ he told The News. Fortunately for Akhtar, Nasir hasn’t lodged a formal complaint against him. Yet.