Gautam Gambhir has no great records, just a lot of attitude, says Shahid Afridi
Shahid Afridi did not mince his words while taking a dig at his contemporary Gautam Gambhir and stated that the former opener had no records to his name but lot of attitude. The former Pakistan international is the latest player to launch his autobiography named “Game Changer”.
India and Pakistan’s decades-long cricketing rivalry hasn’t really been built on thrilling and nail-biting encounters but moments. The on-field spats, the instant revenge, the constant sledging are the elements that have led a foundation difficult to top in world cricket today. And one of the most famous among those has to be Gambhir and Afridi’s on field brawl.
It was 2007 when Pakistan had come to Indian for an ODI series with the match in reference being held in Kanpur. The on-field spat had led to both the players foul-mouthing each other consequently breaching the ICC Code of Conduct. While Gambhir had seemingly moved on with both the players retiring from international duties, Afridi has remembered every bit of it.
Present at the launch of his autobiography “Game Changer”, Afridi revealed that had the umpires not intervened the clash, he surely would have finished it. “I remember the run-in with Gambhir during the 2007 Asia Cup, when he completed his single while running straight into me. The umpires had to finish it off or I would have. Clearly, we had a frank bilateral discussion about each other’s female relatives.”
The all-rounder didn’t stop there and went further ahead to state, “Some rivalries were personal, some professional. First the curious case of Gambhir. Oh poor Gautam. He & his attitude problem. He who has no personality. He who is barely a character in the great scheme of cricket. He who has no great records just a lot of attitude.”
“Gambhir behaves like he’s a cross between Don Bradman & James Bond. In Karachi we call guys like him saryal (burnt up). Its simple, I like happy, positive people. Doesn’t matter if they are aggressive or competitive, but you have to be positive & Gambhir wasn’t,” he further wrote in his autobiography,” Afridi concluded.
Gambhir has been in the news of late after Paddy Upton had described the former opener as mentally insecure although the former mental conditioning coach was quick to also add that the insecurity didn’t stop him from becoming one of India’s most successful openers. While Gambhir fully understood Upton’s statement stating to PTI that there was “no sinful intention in Upton’s views", we are not sure he would be so understanding for Afridi.
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