'Mohammed Asif had sided with me in a joke which enraged Shoaib Akhtar' - Shahid Afridi opens up on the 2007 ugly spat between two cricketers

The 2007 dressing room incident can be considered as one of the most controversial incidents of Pakistan cricket history. Pakistan’s veteran speedster Shoaib Akhtar’s cricket career was marred with controversies. The biggest controversy of his career came in 2007 in Johannesburg as he was involved in an ugly spat with Mohammed Asif. 

It was reported that the two batters were involved in a verbal spat and it resulted in Asif being struck by a bat on his left thigh. The ugly episode was later confirmed by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as Akhtar was called back from the 2007 T20 World Cup, hosted in South Africa.

Interestingly, in his autobiography, Controversially Yours, Shoaib touched that part of his career accusing 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 Shoaib.

Years later, Afridi has finally broken his silence on the incident as he denied aggravating the situation. While stating things that happened. He further praised Shoaib 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,” Afridi told Samaa.tv.

People showed my pictures in Dawn and Jang to my father: Shahid Afridi

Further in the interaction, Afridi remembered the early days of his cricket career when cricket was the only thing present in his life. The former captain recalled 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 veteran also revealed 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,” Afridi concluded.