Sachin Tendulkar and Shoaib Akhtar were two of the bests in their business, and the rivalry between them was always very exciting to watch. Whenever both of them faced each other, the contest was always a great one to watch out for.
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Akhtar and Tendulkar shared mutual respect as well as the Rawalpindi Express once expressed his delight on getting selected in Tendulkar’s team for the Cricket All-star match. He also said that getting Tendulkar out on a golden duck in a Test match made him an overnight star.
In his autobiography Controversially Yours, Akhtar said that Tendulkar was ‘scared’ of him, and it created a lot of controversies as well. Akhtar could not even come to India for his launch due to the outburst in the country.
Sachin Tendulkar gave a hilarious response to Shoaib Akhtar’s claims
Sachin Tendulkar gave a hilarious reply to Akhtar’s claims of him being afraid of the Pakistan pacer. Akhtar had a habit of rubbing the ball on his pants before delivering. Tendulkar said watching Akhtar rubbing the ball on his pants certainly frightened him, it was a horrifying visual.
Tendulkar took a dig at Akhtar by saying that he has read in the news that the pacer from Pakistan once asked for reimbursement for the treatment of his genital warts.
“To be honest, I wasn’t scared of Shoaib for the first few years of his career when he was at the peak of his prowess. But ever since the day I read in the newspapers that he sought reimbursement from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the treatment of er… genital warts, I have been utterly terrified. Just watching him stand at the start of his run-up, and rub the ball vigorously on his pants gave me the heebie-jeebies,” Sachin Tendulkar had said to The UnReal Times.
Some of the batters also came in Sachin’s support and said that it would have been a painful process to apply saliva on the ball after taking it from Akhtar.
