“I went looking for Harbhajan Singh in the hotel room to fight with him”, Shoaib Akhtar recalled when he got angry at Harbhajan Singh

India and Pakistan have a passionate rivalry that extends well beyond the realm of sports. There is a lot of excitement around each cricket match between these two countries. Nowadays, only multi-team events include both teams, and tournament organizers always guarantee at least one game between them.

There have been several heated exchanges between the two teams’ players, such as the one that occurred between Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar during the 2010 Asia Cup. As India reached their 268-run goal, Singh came to bat with Suresh Raina. The early six hit by Singh against Akhtar enraged the opposition player.

Akhtar was bowling bouncers at Singh in the last over, and the umpire had to step in to stop it. Singh hit Akhtar for a six towards mid-wicket with India needing only three runs off the final two balls to win. Singh was ecstatic after the same, and his supporters in India still think about his wild celebrations to this day.

Shoaib Akhtar remembered a time when he was so irritated with Singh that he went searching for him in the hotel with the intent of starting a fight. He was Akhtar’s “Punjab brother,” therefore he nicknamed him that. After hearing that the Rawalpindi Express was coming for him, Pakistan’s best pacer told the spinner that he could find him at the hotel. Once a day had passed, Akhtar said, Singh had apologized to him.

“I went looking for Harbhajan Singh in the hotel room to fight with him,” Akhtar had said in a video interview on the Helo app.

“He eats with us, roams around with us in Lahore, culture is similar to us, he is a Punjabi brother and yet he will misbehave with us? I thought I will go and fight with him in the hotel room. He knew that Shoaib was coming. But I couldn’t find him. I calmed down the next day and he had also apologized,” he added.

Akhtar had previously criticized both Singh and the Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, and Singh had verified the event, saying that he dreaded Akhtar because he was like a Hulk. So when he heard that the pacer was seeking him, he hid from Akhtar.