Published: May 04, 2019, 12:29 PM (IST)
Edited: May 04, 2019, 12:29 PM (IST)
Not known to pull back punches, Gautam Gambhir hit back at Shahid Afridi, offering to take him to a session with “a psychiatrist” after the former Pakistan captain wrote a few uncharitable things about the Indian opener.
Afridi, in his just-released autobiography ‘Game Changer’, had sarcastically referred to Gambhir as someone who “behaves like a cross between Don Bradman and James Bond,” and has a “lot of attitude and no great records.”
Gambhir responded through his official twitter handle tagging Afridi.
“…you are a hilarious man!!! Anyway, we are still granting visas to Pakistanis for medical tourism. I will personally take you to a psychiatrist,” Gambhir tweeted.
@SAfridiOfficial you are a hilarious man!!! Anyway, we are still granting visas to Pakistanis for medical tourism. I will personally take you to a psychiatrist.
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) May 4, 2019
The duo never shared great rapport on and off-the-field and it was reflected in Afridi’s take on Gambhir.
“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,” Afridi wrote.
“Gambhir behaves like he’s a cross between Don Bradman & James Bond. In Karachi, we call guys like him saryal (grumpy). It’s 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.
The two had an angry bust up during a bilateral series ODI in Kanpur back in 2007 (wrongly referred in Afridi’s book as Asia Cup game).
“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,” Afridi recalled the uncharitable verbal exchange.
Afridi has recently agreed that he had indulged in age-fraud and was 19 years old when he scored his hundred debut and not 16 as it was believed for a lot of years.
