Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar’s cricket career was marred with controversies. The 2007 dressing room incident in Johannesburg can be considered as one of the most controversial incidents of not just his career but also the Pakistan cricket team.
While the Pakistan team was in South Africa for the 2007 T20 World Cup, Shoaib Akhtar was involved in an ugly spat with Mohammed Asif. It was reported that the two bowlers were involved in a verbal spat that resulted in Asif being struck by a bat on his left thigh.
The incident was later confirmed by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as Akhtar was called back from South Africa. Incidentally, Akhtar, in his autobiography, Controversially Yours, accused former Pakistan skipper Shahid 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 Akhtar.
Now, Afridi has finally broken his silence on the incident as he denied aggravating the situation. While speaking about the incident, Afridi praised Akhtar saying that the speedster has a beautiful heart.
“Things happen. Asif had sided with me in a joke which enraged Shoaib and all this happened. But Shoaib has a very beautiful heart,” the veteran all-rounder was quoted as saying Samaa.tv.
Furthermore, Afridi also recalled the early days of his cricket career when cricket was the only thing present in his life. He revealed that when he was around 14, he used to focus just on cricket and used to sleep with his cricket kit next to him.
The 41-year-old also remembered that since there was no social media, people used to come up to his father to show his pictures printed in the newspaper and that used to give immense joy to his father.
“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,” he concluded.