India in their last match notched up a comfortable victory against UAE on Thursday. After the end of the match, there was sheer comedy was played in front of TV cameras, as Harbhajan Singh’s trolled his former teammate VVS Laxman and former Australian opener Matthew Hayden laughed along. There is an interesting history to the conversation as well.
Harbhajan was being congratulated by Bhogle on his returns of 1/11 against UAE, but the conversation was interrupted almost immediately by VVS Laxman, who had hos own agenda.
He stopped Bhogle and said, “Before that, Bhajji, what do you think of my shirt?” – showing off his bright shirt, which Bhogle had referred to as of a ‘glorious pink’ colour.
Harbhajan was momentarily taken aback, before putting his arm around Laxman and saying, “You’re looking great. You’re competing with Sherry paaji.” Harbhajan referred to former Indian opener Navjot Sidhu, the most noisy commentator ever on Indian TV. The inside joke was not lost on Laxman, as he went on to ask Harbhajan to also comment on Hayden’s bright yellow shirt.
Harbhajan also had a witticism for Hayden, saying that he looked like he had just come from Goa. He was not just done with that, however, as he also pointed out Laxman’s choice shoes. Laxman was very suspicious by now and called for a truce.
The conversation ended with Harbhajan asking for half of Laxman’s salary for all the praise he had heaped on his clothing and is an indication of the dressing room relation between these two India greats.
This incident has history to be sourced back to South Africa’s tour of India last year, when Harbhajan Singh had led the Indian team in showing a written message about Laxman’s choice of shirt while on commentary duty.