Afridi recalls infamous episode of Shoaib Akhtar hitting Mohammad Asif with a bat at 2007 World T20
Akhtar had previously talked about the incident in his autobiography, Controversially Yours, where he accused Afridi of aggravating the situation.
In 2007, reports surfaced that former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar had hit his teammate Mohammed Asif with a bat. The reports were confirmed later and Akhtar was called back from the 2007 ICC World T20 in South Africa. It is one of the most controversial incidents in cricket and Akhtar has always been the controversy’s favourite child.
Akhtar had previously talked about the incident in his autobiography, Controversially Yours, where he accused Afridi of aggravating the situation.
“Afridi was aggravating the situation and I swung the bat at both of them. Afridi ducked, but Asif couldn’t get out of the way, the bat struck him on his thighs and he collapsed. I had lost it. I had never behaved like this, especially in the dressing room,” wrote Shoaib.
Now, Afridi has also touched upon the incident in an interview. Afridi denied aggravating the situation.
“Things happen,” Afridi told Samaa.tv.
“Asif had sided with me in a joke which enraged Shoaib and all this happened. But Shoaib has a very beautiful heart.”
Afridi remembered his early days in cricket where his father wanted his to focus on studies rather than cricket.
“When I played under 14 and 18, there was only cricket in my all life,” he said.
“I used to sleep in my kit if I had a match the next day because I didn’t want to be late.”
“There was no social media at that time, so people showed my pictures in Dawn and Jang to my father and said his son was indeed up to something good.”
Afridi recently had commented on Cricket South Africa's decision to allow their cricketers to leave their series against Pakistan for the Indian Premier League 2021 (before it was suspended).
"Surprising to see @OfficialCSA allowing players to travel for IPL in the middle of a series. It is sad to see T20 leagues influencing international cricket. Some rethinking needs to be done!!," Afridi tweeted.
