Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar narrated a funny incident involving himself and the cricketing God Sachin Tendulkar during Pakistan’s tour of India, 2007. Pakistan played five ODIs and three Test matches in November-December, 2007.
In a video on Sportskeeda’s Youtube Channel, Shoaib Akhtar revealed about the incident. At an awards function on the 2007 tour, Akhtar tried to play a prank on Sachin Tendulkar by lifting him but instead ended up dropping him. The Rawalpindi Express was scared that he “would never get an Indian Visa” after the incident.
“After Pakistan, if there is one country where I have received a lot of love, it is India. I have a lot of good memories from my visits to India. During the 2007 tour, there was an awards function. So obviously, there was a get-together after the function. As usual, I wanted to do something different. So I tried to lift Sachin Tendulkar, just for fun. I managed to lift him but then he slipped from my hands.
Tendulkar fell down, not that badly, but I thought to myself that ‘I am dead’. I feared that if Sachin Tendulkar gets unfit or injured, I would never get an Indian Visa. The Indians would never allow me to come back to the country or would burn me alive.”
“When he fell down I really thought I am done for life. I remember Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh were also there and they were telling me, ‘what are you doing man?’ And I responded saying ‘I don’t really know, it just happened.’ So then I went and hugged Tendulkar and asked him if he was okay. Thankfully, he said he was fine. Tendulkar later hammered us in the series. At that point, I wished he was unfit (jokingly),” Akhtar further revealed.
On Pakistan’s tour of India, 2007, the visitors did not gain much success. They lost the ODI series 3-2 and the three-match Test series 1-0.