Pakistan is famous for producing aggressive fast bowlers. Sometimes the rage takes the better of these bowlers and even causes a spat within the team. One such incident happened in the build to T20 World Cup 2007 when Shoaib Akhtar hit tainted speedster Mohammed Asif with a bat injuring his leg. Akhtar was snubbed from the side for his behaviour and apologized later when he repatriated to Pakistan.
In his autobiography ‘Controversially Yours’, Akhtar blamed all-rounder Shahid Afridi for inciting him to take the contemptuous step.
However, in a recent interview, Asif charged Akhtar while bringing the incident to the surface on innumerable occasions. Asif also revealed that once he called up his compatriot and asked him to stop talking about the episode.
“The dressing room spat with Shoaib Akhtar in 2007 was an incident that Shoaib Akhtar has lived-off for 13 years. He has made so many comments about it and has kept on bringing it up whenever he can. Well, I had enough, so I called him up recently and told him to shut up about the incident and move on from it. I told him to get over what happened, it’s history now. Instead of talking about that incident in every interview, I told him to talk sense, talk about how he can help young cricketers in Pakistan,” Asif told PakPassion.
Concluding the interview, the 38-year-old also took a sly dig at Akhtar by divulging that the latter keeps daydreaming about acceding to various positions in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
“One day he’s dreaming of being the Chief Selector, the next day he’s dreaming about being Pakistan’s Head Coach or Chairman PCB, he needs to get back to reality and actually focus on helping young cricketers instead of chatting about something that happened more than 13 years ago,” added Asif.
