'You look like Tarzan but bowl like Jane', Andrew Flintoff recalls sledging Shoaib Akhtar

Former English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff recollected a sledging incident between himself and Pakistani pace icon Shoaib Akhtar during a Test match in 2005. Flintoff had spoken about this during a recent interview. 

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'You look like Tarzan'

While speaking to a sports radio station, the ex-all-rounder said that Akhtar had called him fat and when the Englishman had gone out to bat, he had told Shoaib that he looks like Tarzan but bowls like Jane. However, it was the 'Rawalpindi Express' who had the last laugh as a fiery delivery from the pace sensation made Flintoff's off-stump cartwheel backwards and he had no choice other than walking back to the pavilion.

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England tour of Pakistan 2005/06

The English team had toured Pakistan from October to December 2005. Michael Vaughan had captained the Test side while Marcus Trescothick had led the ODI side. However, the English team did not have a memorable outing as they went on to lose the three-match Test series 2-0 and the five-match ODI series 3-2 that followed. The Pakistan side was led by one of the batting icons Inzamam-Ul-Haq.

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The impact of COVID-19 on sporting events

All the major sporting events have either been postponed or cancelled due to the global pandemic. The big global events like the UEFA Euro Cup 2020 and the Tokyo Olympic Games have been postponed to the summer of 2021 while the showpiece event of world tennis i.e. the Wimbledon 2020 has been cancelled for the first time since World War II. 

Coming back to cricket, the semi-final and final matches of the ongoing edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) have been postponed as well. The bilateral ODI series between India and South Africa have been rescheduled at a later date whereas, the IPL 2020 that was supposed to get underway on March 29 has tentatively been postponed to April 15.

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