Shahid Afridi breaks silence on Shoaib Akhtar hitting Asif with a bat controversy
Shahid Afridi has revealed his side of the story of one of the biggest controversies in Pakistani cricket. During the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa, Shoaib Akhtar was called back to Pakistan for hitting fellow pacer Mohammad Asif with a bat.
Shoaib Akhtar had previously opened up about the incident in his autobiography, 'Controversially Yours'. He accused Shahid Afridi of 'aggravating' the situation, prompting the speedster to take a swing at him which instead hit Asif.
“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.
On Saturday, Shahid Afridi also touched upon the incident in an interview, saying Asif and he were playing a joke which got out of hand.
“Things happen. Asif had sided with me in a joke which enraged Shoaib and all this happened. But Shoaib has a very beautiful heart,” Shahid Afridi told Samaa.tv.
Pakistan met India in the famous final of the 2007 World Cup where Misbah ul Haq failed to finish off the game against Joginder Sharma and his team lost by 5 runs.
"I used to sleep in my kit if I had a match the next day" - Shahid Afridi
Shahid Afridi also reminisced about his early days in cricket. He recalled how he used to sleep in his kit and collect praise from family and relatives at a very young age.
“When I played under 14 and 18, there was only cricket in my all life. 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,” added Afridi.
One of the most successful cricketers from Pakistan, Shahid Afridi played 27 Tests, 398 ODIs and 99 T20Is, accruing over 10,000 runs in total. He also picked up over 600 wickets in a record-studded career.