When two teams take the field and engage in a competitive sport, circumstances and testosterone together cause tempers to fray. Why should cricket, despite carrying the tag of being the gentleman’s game, be any different?
Though cricket in the good old days rarely saw an angry skirmish, the modern day game has had its fair share of ill-tempered fights.
While there have surely been many more confrontations on the cricket field than those mentioned here, these fights deserve to make the list due to the sheer amount of anger involved.
Shahid Afridi and Gautam Gambhir:
Who can forget that epic battle between Shahid Afridi and Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir is known for his loose temper on the field and Afridi for making people angry. It was one of those moments when both of them lost their cool. This was the biggest spat in the history during a India-Pakistan match. Gambhir ran into Afridi when he was running wickets and things got heated between the two and few abuses were exchanged. The umpires had to eventually separate the players. Both the players were fined by the match refree after the spat.
Mitchell Starc and Kieron Pollard:
Another IPL fight when RCB Bowler Mitchell Starc tried to get under the skin of Kieron Pollard. Pollard lost his cool and threw his bat on the ground.
Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli:
It was an awful sight to watch as India’s current Test captain took on Indian discard Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata Knight Rider captain.
Shane Warne and Marlon Samuel:
It was a Big Bash League game and Shane Warne had lost his cool on Marlon Samuel’s repetitive antics.
Harbhajan Singh and Shoaib Akhtar:
It was an Asia game clash between India and Pakistan. Harbhajan Singh and Shoaib Akhtar lived up to everyone’s expectations.
Virendra Sehwag v/s Shoaib Akhtar, 2003: In the 2003 World Cup match between India and Pakistan, Shoaib Akhtar kept on delivering bouncers to Virendra Sehwag forcing him to play the pull shot. Sehwag was not comfortable playing the shot so asked Shoaib to bowl the same to Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin easily played the shot and hit a six. Sehwag then went up to Akhtar and said, “Baap baap hota hai aur beta beta hota hai.”
