Harbhajan Singh.
Credit: PTI Photo
Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh, who is now often seen as a commentator and TV pundit, slammed a cricket fan from Pakistan recently for wrongly addressing a person following Pakistan team captain Babar Azam for an interview, as Irfan Pathan.
A video that is making rounds of the internet shows a person holding a mic, following Azam for an interaction. However, Azam asks his personnel to turn him away and the individual with mic is stopped. One netizen shared this video on X and claimed that the person Azam refused to interact with was former Indian pacer Irfan Pathan— and this irked Bhajji Paaji (Harbhajan).
Bhajji came out in support of his former team mate and slammed the social media user for wrongly addressing the person with the mic as Pathan.
"You had already lost the manners needed to speak, and how have you also stopped seeing with your eyes? Moreover, if the questions were asked in English, there would have been more difficulties," the famed off-spinner said.
"Where is @IrfanPathan in this video ?? Bolne ki tameez to aap logo ko pehle hi nahi thi. Ab aankho se dikhna bi bandh ho gya kya ? Waise bi agar angreji mai swal pooch liya to pange pad jayenge", Harbhajan's post on X read.
The original text in the caption of the video shared by the netizen read: "When @IrfanPathan begs to Babar Azam for Interview and he refused" followed by a laughing emoji and a flag of Pakistan.
Pathan, in response to Harbhajan, asked the latter to ignore such posts. Stating that such posts are only to gain social media reach, Pathan said, "Inko jhoot bolke REACH chahiye. Ignore maaro Paaji @harbhajan_singh".
The post gathered much attention from cricket fans in both countries who exchanged barbs over favouritism.
Meanwhile, Harbhajan is said to have reportedly supported the decision by the BCCI to avoid traveling to Pakistan for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. "I don't think it is safe to go there (Pakistan). Incidents occur there almost every day. The BCCI's stance is completely correct, because the players' security comes first," Harbhajan was quoted as saying by IANS.