Prithvi Shaw and 5 other cricketers who got into fights off the field

The recent Prithvi Shaw incident on February 15 is a classic example of the fact that cricketers, just like any other human being, can lose their patience when pushed too hard.

A scuffle over taking selfies with Shaw in a restaurant in Mumbai led to a brawl in which Shaw too reportedly got physical. Video footage also shows Shaw grabbing a baseball from a woman's hand, who goes by the name Sapna Gill, a known social media face.

Post this incident, there is a lot of outrage on social media too. Almost everyone is supporting Shaw saying whatever he did was in his self-defence and that the woman, Sapna Gill, is behind this entire ruckus. She has been arrested and will be produced in a court today (February 17).

The fact of the matter is that Shaw isn't the first and only cricketer to have been involved in off field brawls.

Here are 5 cricketers who had ugly altercations off the field:

1 Shoaib Akhtar: The Rawalpindi Express is known for his short-temper. One of the fastest bowlers of all time, on the field, Akhtar made sure he intimidated the batters to have a psychological dominance over him.

But his angry-man attitude wasn't just restricted on the field. Outside the field too, he stayed the same. In one instance, Shoaib Akhtar was reported to have hit fellow cricketer and Pakistan's former pacer Mohammad Asif with a cricket bat. This happened in 2007 when Pakistan was in South Africa to play the T20 World Cup. Akhtar was subsequently called back to Pakistan after the incident.

In his autobiography, Controversially Yours, Akhtar opened up on this incident. He wrote," One day, after a nets session in Johannesburg, I was in the dressing room and Afridi was pulling my leg ad teasing me; just joking around. Not the best thing to do, though, when I've just come off a bowling spell. I am usually tired and aware of every muscle in my body. I got irritated. Asif was in the adjacent bathroom and found my irriration very funny. I got very cheesed off and picked up a bat-I don't know what made me do it, what was going on in my mind. I kicked open the door of the bathroom, pulled him out. 

Akhtar further writes, "He was jeering at me and said a couple of things that got my goat but I never though I would react the way I did and especially towards a junior. Afridi was still aggravating the situation and I swung the bat at both of them. Afridi ducked the but Asif couldn't get out of the way, the bat struck him on his thighs and he collapsed. I had lost it. And Afridi did what he always does.: he leaked the news."

Akhtar also wrote that it was good that he was called back after this indident as Pakistan lost the finals against India and he was not there for being made a scapegoat for the loss. He also accepted his blunder saying, " I knew I had made a bad mistake and I knew I was going to get punished for it."

Akhtar said that he never thought he would react the way he did, especially towards a junior player.

2. Shakib Al Hasan: The former Bangladeshi captain, Shakib al Hasan, got into an altercation with a fan while he was playing an ODI against India in Mirpur, 2014. It was said that a spectator was eve-teasing Hasan's wife, Umme Ahmed Shishir, during the rain break. 

It was also said that Shakib had raised his hand on the man, after getting infuriated by his act, though he later denied it saying, "I was there, but I did not raise my hand." Shakib was called by the Bangldesh Cricket Board (BCB) over this and he said that he did break rules by going out of the dressing room but also remained unapologetic about his altercation with the man.

3. Jonathan Trott: Not everyone knows this, but former England batter Jonathan Trott had once hit Pakistani cricketer Wahab Riaz on his face during a net practice session in 2010. This wasn't a personal rivalry but it was because of spot-fixing scandal in which three Pakistani cricketers were caught.

The whole England team was angry on the Pakistani team and in one such face-off with their counterparts, an angry Jonathan Trott hit Wahab Riaz on his face. This was revealed by Shoaib Akhtar in his autobiography as he was the only witness to this incident.

He wrote: " I watched in despair as Jonathan Trott hit Wahab Riaz on the face and called him a fixer during a net session."

This incident, which could have even finished Trott's career was brushed under the carpet because the victim was part of a team that was already in trouble because of spot-fixing scandal.

4. Praveen Kumar: The former Indian medium pacer, who was known for his swinging deliveries, was quite controversial with his tongue. In one such serious incident outside the field, in 2019, Praveen Kumar was reported to have thrashed his neighbour, Deepak Sharma and pushed his 7-year-old son.

Sharma had lodged a complaint against Praveen Kumar saying that the cricketer hit them in an inebriated condition. Kumar, on the other hand, defended himself saying that it was Sharma who hit him first and he did not beat anybody. 

This wasn't the only incident involving Kumar. In another instance, during a net session in UK, few Indian fans passed some verbal remarks on Rohit Sharma and Kumar, after which Kumar hurled some expletives against them. Rohit Sharma too was angry on the fans.

5. Inzamam-ul-Haq: Who can forget the famous 1997 incident from Toronto where India and Pakistan were playing in the Sahara Cup. A fan was reportedly passing disrespectable remarks at Inzamam, calling him Aaloo (a potato). Inzamam stormed to the stands to hit the man with a bat which he was holding in his hand. He was controlled by his teammates and other spectators.

However, Waqar Younis, Inzamam's teammate, had given a different reason for Inzamam losing his cool. According to Waqar, it was not the a remark on his physical appearance that angered Inzamam, but some filthy comments which were being made by some fans on Indian cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin's wife. This made the former Pakistani captain lose his cool.