After Match, India-Pakistan Cricketers Chilled Together: Afridi

“After our match was over, Zaheer Khan, Bhajji, Yuvi... all of us would sit in the same room,” said Afridi.

Shahid Afridi and Virender Sehwag during a live chat.

(Photo Courtesy: UC Browser)

India and Pakistan are known to be fierce rivals on the cricket field, but when cricket is not the focus, the rivals turn friends.

So when Virender Sehwag started narrating how he was bullied by the Pakistani cricketers on his India debut, during a live chat conducted by UC Browser, Shahid Afridi was quick to say that the rivalry was restricted just to the field.

“These things used to happen more back then. But the good thing is that they were just limited to the ground. After our match was over, Zaheer Khan, Bhajji, Yuvi... all of us would sit in the same room. We ate together, or if we went out, we went together. Either Viru used to take us, or Zaheer used to take us.”

Shahid Afridi

India have played, and registered dominant wins in two games against Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup.

After defeating the Sarfaraz Ahmed-led team by 8 wickets in the group stage, defending champions registered their biggest ODI win (9 wickets) over Pakistan in the Super Four stage on Sunday, 23 September. While India is through to the final, Pakistan need one more win over Bangladesh to seal their spot.

“Aggression should be shown on the ground,” said Afridi. Sehwag added, “That’s not just with Pakistan, but with all the teams. Since our language is the same, used to happen more in the India-Pakistan matches. But I don’t remember any such incident happening in a very long time".