3 times former Indian cricketers engaged in verbal battles
Cricket is no longer just a game; it's an emotion to which people are extremely attached, especially in a country like India. We have seen fights between players emerge on the cricket field plenty of times, which can happen in the heat of the moment.
These days, though, social media has also become a place where there are a lot of fights and quarrels between fans, pundits, and even players with regard to cricketing thoughts.
Here, we look at three instances where former Indian cricketers were involved in verbal battles on social media platforms:
#1 Venkatesh Prasad and Aakash Chopra
The first and latest on the list is the recent argument between former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad and former batter and current broadcaster Aakash Chopra.
Ahead of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Series between India and Australia, Prasad heavily criticized the selection of KL Rahul on Twitter. He felt that there were other players who were being denied the opportunity because of Rahul.
Aakash Chopra responded to Prasad by presenting some statistics that backed KL Rahul's case. Prasad sent out another tweet during the Delhi Test following Rahul's dismissal, which did not impress Chopra, who criticized the timing of the tweet.
Later, the Indian cricketer-turned-commentator called Prased an "agenda vendor" on his YouTube channel, which made matters worse. Post this, Chopra invited Prasad for a live session on his channel to clarify the matter, which the latter denied.
#2 Harbhajan Singh and Mohammed Amir
After Pakistan defeated India in the 2021 T20 World Cup, Mohammed Amir taunted Harbhajan Singh on micro-blogging site Twitter.
Bhajji, as Singh is popularly known, then shared a video of him hitting Amir for six in response. Amir then shared a clip of Shahid Afridi smashing sixes against Harbhajan in a test match, after which the issue became quite serious.
The former Indian off-spinner dug up Amir's past and reminded him of his part in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal, which rocked the cricketing world.
#3 Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi
Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi were involved in an ugly on-field altercation during an ODI in Kanpur back in 2007, and the relationship between the two has only become worse since.
Afridi wrote about the incident in his autobiography, 'Game Changer', mentioning that Gambhir had an attitude problem.
Gambhir took the issue up on Twitter, saying that the former Pakistani captain needed psychiatric treatment.
Later, Afridi suggested the same for Gambhir at a launch event, to which the former Indian opener responded that Afridi hadn't grown mentally. The duo have also been involved in many other fights on social media.