Legendary Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi has opened up about his two match fixing incidents, saying that tampering the pitch in 2005 was a 'mistake'.
During an interview with Samaa TV, the iconic cricketer talked about the test match from 2005, where he had used a cylinder blast at the stadium as the perfect distraction to tamper with the pitch.
The Pakistani cricket team had been playing a Test match against England in Faisalabad in 2005.
Afridi said that the ball had not been 'spinning, or turning' as the bowlers had been anticipating, despite him trying his best. "I was applying my full force and nothing was happening. Then suddenly, a gas cylinder exploded and everyone got distracted," he said.
"I told Malik [Shoaib Malik] 'I really want to create a patch here, so that at least the ball can turn'", he said, adding that his teammate replied 'Do it, nobody is looking'.
He said that what happened next 'was history', and that he regrets both the pitch tampering incident, as well as the infamous ball-biting moment that took place a few years later.
The ball-biting incident took place years later during a T20I match against England, where Afridi was pictured biting the ball, and was found guilty of 'changing the condition of the ball in breach of Law 42.3 of the Laws of Cricket'.
In his recent interview, Afridi has admitted that he wrong to engage in both those actions. "That incident and the ball-biting one - when I look back at those, I realise it was a mistake."
During an interview with Samaa TV, the iconic cricketer talked about the test match from 2005, where he had used a cylinder blast at the stadium as the perfect distraction to tamper with the pitch.
The Pakistani cricket team had been playing a Test match against England in Faisalabad in 2005.
Afridi said that the ball had not been 'spinning, or turning' as the bowlers had been anticipating, despite him trying his best. "I was applying my full force and nothing was happening. Then suddenly, a gas cylinder exploded and everyone got distracted," he said.
"I told Malik [Shoaib Malik] 'I really want to create a patch here, so that at least the ball can turn'", he said, adding that his teammate replied 'Do it, nobody is looking'.
He said that what happened next 'was history', and that he regrets both the pitch tampering incident, as well as the infamous ball-biting moment that took place a few years later.
The ball-biting incident took place years later during a T20I match against England, where Afridi was pictured biting the ball, and was found guilty of 'changing the condition of the ball in breach of Law 42.3 of the Laws of Cricket'.
In his recent interview, Afridi has admitted that he wrong to engage in both those actions. "That incident and the ball-biting one - when I look back at those, I realise it was a mistake."