We all know the rivalry between India and Pakistan in cricket. Whenever both the teams came face to face on the ground, it engaged a lot audience. This isn’t only for the fans, this game is high voltage for the cricketers also, and sledding and banter became part of the game.
Former Pakistani cricketer Kamran Akmal recently announced his retirement from all formats of cricket. Talking to a YouTube Channel “Nadir Ali Podcast”, he was asked to recall any incident with some sledging and banter during a match against the Indian team.
In response, Kamran told a story about a test match between India and Pakistan in Mohali in 2005. In that match, his teammate Shoaib Malik got engaged with that time Indian skipper Ganguly, when he was on the strike. Malik made a strange comment over the Indian skipper and in the result got dismissed in the next ball.
“In 2005 Mohali Test match, Danish Kaneria bowled and Shoaib Malik was at silly mid-on and Salman Butt was at silly mid-off. Danish missed the length and Ganguly scored it for a boundary. Shoaib Malik said, ‘Dekha Kamran, kitna pressure hain Dada pe, chakke wala bowl chauka mara. (Did you see Kamran? Seems like Dada is under pressure. That ball should have been hit for a six instead of four)’ Ganguly stepped out of the crease to hit the next ball and he was stumped out. Before leaving Ganguly told Malik, ‘Tu bohut tez hai, tujhe me chhodunga nahi, tu bahar aa”.
This incident happened in the first innings of the test match. But Ganguly wasn’t stumped; he was caught on off-side delivery of Kaneria. But that test match was drawn.
