Afridi bought Mushfiqur's bat on the behalf of his foundation.
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It was the same willow with which Mushfiqur had slammed a double hundred against Sri Lanka in 2013 and he put it up for auction last month to raise funds for the COVID-19 relief work in his country.
“Shahid Afridi bought my bat on behalf of his foundation. I feel privileged and honoured that someone like him has joined our great cause,” Rahim was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
Earlier, several fraud bidders had infiltrated the auction, leading to the suspension of the process. However, Afridi contacted Mushfiqur to buy the precious memorabilia.
“We had to suspend the auction due to some fraud bidders, which was unexpected. Shahid bhai personally contacted me after seeing the news (of my bat put on auction). He sent an offer letter on May 13 that he was interested to buy for USD 20,000, which is almost BDT 16.8 lakh,” the veteran Bangladesh cricketer said.
Taking to Twitter, Mushfiqur also posted a video message in which Afridi can be heard saying: “The work you are doing is great. Only real life heros do this. We are going through a tough phase in such times we need the love and support of each other.”
“I want to buy your bat on behalf of all of Pakistan. Our prayers are with you. Hopefully we will again meet on the cricket ground once this is over,” he added.
Cricketers are playing their part to help the underprivileged in this time of global health crisis. Earlier this month, RCB legends Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers auctioned their kits from the IPL 2016 match against Gujarat Lions. Before that England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler raised 65,000 pounds by auctioning his World Cup final jersey.