Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar always shared a sweet-sour relationship with the Indian Cricketers. During his playing days Shoaib always had quarrels with his counterparts which was quite liked by his fans.
Cricket lovers remembers the fights which Akhtar had with Harbhajan & Sehwag on & off field that was quite interesting to watch, not only this but also Akhtar use to irritate Rahul Dravid with his antics. After taking retirement from cricket Akhtar did a great work in India by doing many cricket assignments which helped him to develop a bond of friendship with many Indian players.
Talking about the time spent in India Akhtar recalled the incidents where he used to wrestle with his Indian friends cum players Harbhajan & Yuvraj Singh & often ended up injuring them. Akhtar claimed that while wrestling jokingly he ended up injuring his counterparts & even his teammates. He also said that wrestling is his way to express love & affection to his friends & closed ones.
Akhtar said on BBC Podcast, “I don’t wrestle, it’s my way of showing my affection to other people and I basically crossed the line. When I like someone, I throw them. I broke Yuvraj’s back, have previously broken Shahid Afridi’s rib by hugging him, and I made Abdul Razzaq stretch his hamstring a bit too much. So my way of loving people is a bit wild. It was just me being stupid in my younger days but I never realised my own power”.
Akhtar is also known for voicing his opinions which often landed him in controversies. Some days ago, Akhtar also talked about the time when he was very young & was bowling to Tendulkar for the first time in his career during the Kolkata Test match in 1999. He narrated his whole experience when bowling to the legendary batsman who is regarded as God in India.
Depicting his experience Akhtar said to Pakistani News channel ARY in an interview, “I heard Sachin was the god. I said this is a god? Iss ki khairiyat nahi. He didn’t recognize me, and I didn’t recognize him. He was in his own attitude and I was in my attitude. But I wanted to get him out on the first ball and that happened”.
