"Told him to shut up and move on" - Mohammad Asif on dressing room altercation with Shoaib Akhtar

Former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif has urged his former teammate Shoaib Akhtar to stop living in the past and move on from their controversial dressing room spat that occurred during the 2007 World T20.

Akhtar was banned for three matches and withdrawn from the Pakistan squad for the World T20 after reports surfaced that he had hit Asif with a bat on his thigh.

Speaking to Pak Passion, Asif said the time had come for Akhtar to put the incident behind him.

"The dressing room spat with Shoaib Akhtar in 2007 was an incident that Shoaib has lived off for 13 years," Asif said. "He has made so many comments about it and kept on bringing it up whenever he could.

"I had enough, so I called him up recently and told him to shut up about the incident and move on. I told him to get over what happened, it’s history now."

Mohammad Asif calls on Akhtar to help budding young cricketers

Akhtar had previously apologized to Asif and accused Shahid Afridi of aggravating the incident. In a recent interaction with Samaa.tv, Afridi played down the situation.

“Things happen,” Afridi said. “Asif had sided with me in a joke which enraged Shoaib and all this happened. But Shoaib has a very beautiful heart."

Asif said Akhtar should shift his focus to helping aspiring cricketers in Pakistan.

"Instead of talking about that incident in every interview, I told him to talk sense, talk about how he can help young cricketers in Pakistan," he said.

"One day he’s dreaming of being the Chief Selector, the next day he’s dreaming about being Pakistan’s Head Coach or Chairman PCB, he needs to get back to reality and actually focus on helping young cricketers instead of chatting about something that happened more than 13 years ago."

"What a delivery! Beautifully bowled!" This peach from Pakistan's Mohammad Asif in 2010 is this week's #SaturdaySeed 🥜 pic.twitter.com/iZjAJJAsuD

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) May 8, 2021

Mohammad Asif's international career

Mohammad Asif played 23 Tests, 38 ODIs and 11 T20Is for Pakistan, picking up a total of 165 international wickets. However, his career came to a premature end after he was banned from international cricket for seven years for his role in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal.

106 Test wickets46 ODI wickets13 T20I wicketsHappy birthday Mohammad Asif! pic.twitter.com/5WIcg1RPzp

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) December 20, 2020