May 04
Gautam Gambhir has hit back with a scathing rebuttal to former Pakistan Captain Shahid Afridi’s comments in his newly launched autobiography ‘Game Changer’ that the former Indian opener had an “attitude problem” and was “full of negativity” during his playing days. Gambhir, who is currently in the midst of campaigning as a candidate for the BJP in the ongoing General Elections offered to take Afridi to a psychiatrist as India is still “granting visas to Pakistanis for medical tourism.”
The pair had a testy relationship in their playing days Afridi hasn’t held back in his criticism of Gambhir in his autobiography.
“Oh, poor Gautam. He and his attitude problem,” Afridi writes. “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. He, who behaves like he’s a cross between Don Bradman and James Bond or something. In Karachi, we call guys like him ‘saryal’, burnt up.
“I remember that run-in with him 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. Whatever. Gambhir doesn’t matter.”
The incident that Afridi refers to was not in the Asia Cup but actually in the third ODI between India and Pakistan in Kanpur in November 2007, when Gambhir and Afridi came head-to-head and both were fined for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct.
The book goes on to add, “Gautam Gambhir was my favourite sledging victim at one point just because of the way he talked back.”