Former Pakistan cricket captain Shahid Afridi has slammed Gautam Gambhir in his new book and called him a negative person with a lot of attitude problem. Afridi's autobiography named 'Game Changer' has been in the news after the popular Pak cricket revealed his real age in the book.
It is a well-known fact that there is absolutely no love lost between Afridi and Gambhir and the former Pakistan skipper has now launched an absolutely scathing attack on the Indian left-hander. "Some rivalries were personal, some professional. First the curious case of Gambhir. Oh poor Gautam. He & his attitude problem. He who has no personality. He who is barely a character in the great scheme of cricket. He who has no great records just a lot of attitude."
He also adds that when they were playing, Gambhir was not competitive, but had a very negative attitude all the time. Afridi writes that the former Indian player behaved as if he was a cross between James Bond and Donald Bradman in the way he carries himself on the field.
'Gambhir wasn't positive'
"Gambhir behaves like he's a cross between Don Bradman & James Bond. In Karachi, we call guys like him saryal (burnt up). It's simple, I like happy, positive people. Doesn't matter if they are aggressive or competitive, but you have to be positive & Gambhir wasn't," he further wrote in his autobiography.
In one of his interviews with ESPNCricinfo, Afridi also said that his favourite India-Pakistan match was the Kanpur ODI back in 2005 where he scored a blistering century. Interestingly, in this very match, he was also involved in a fiery exchange of words with Gambhir which forced the umpires to separate both the players.
Also, both these 'fiery' characters have also been involved in plenty of Twitter exchanges as they are very strong in putting their opinions across. Gambhir, who is now a politician, and is in the fray in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, has always given a befitting reply to Afridi and it will be interesting to see how he responds to these charges.
Earlier this week, former India mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton had described the left-hander as 'mentally insecure', a person who was never satisfied with what he had done.
"Let's say his range was 20 to 40 with 30 being normal. When he scored 150, he would be disappointed in not scoring 200." Upton wrote that no matter what he and then coach Gary Kirsten did Gambhir was "negative and pessimistic." Upton then explained the contradiction and the myth associated with mental toughness.
