'Fixer ko sixer': Harbhajan Singh, Mohammad Amir involve in ugly Twitter spat after India-Pakistan contest

After the recent India-Pakistan match in the ongoing T20 World Cup, what started as light-hearted banter between former Pakistani pacer Mohammad Amir and Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh soon turned into an ugly spat.

The duo engaged in a no-holds-barred verbal duel on Twitter, with Singh even reminding Amir about the 2010 spot-fixing scandal in England, which had halted the latter’s career for about six years.

The feud started on 25 October, when Singh responded to Amir’s tweet about India’s 10-wicket loss to Pakistan. The former Indian spinner shared a video of him hitting the winning six off Amir, when the two teams faced off against each other in the 2010 Asia Cup.

Amir responded with a video clip of former Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi hitting Singh for four consecutive sixes during a 2006 Test match in Lahore.

Singh responded with a still from the 2010 Lord’s Test between England and Pakistan,  reminding the former Pakistani bowler about the charges of spot-fixing against him. “Lords mai no ball kaise ho gya tha ?? Kitna liya kisne diya ?” Singh wrote, (How was there a no ball at Lord's? How much did you take (and) who paid you?).

In a separate tweet, the former spinner added that for people like Amir, only money was important, and that he had “insulted the game” of cricket.

The feud between the two continued, with Amir using derogatory language against Singh and the latter responding with tweets about the spot-fixing scandal. Singh’s last tweet was about the same video of him hitting a six off Amir, which he re-shared with the caption “Fixer ko sixer, chal daffa ho ja”.

Amir later tweeted about Singh’s “illegal bowling action”, a reference to the latter’s bowling being reported for suspect action years ago, before it was cleared.

Singh had also engaged in friendly banter with former Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar regarding India’s recent loss to Pakistan. This was the first time the team had lost to Pakistan in a World Cup match.