Harbhajan Singh slams Najam Sethi for comments against India: 'Don't know what he is smoking nowadays'

The Asia Cup entered its Super Four stage this week, but the weather in Colombo where the matches will take place looks to be quite bleak. This has led to an ongoing dispute over scheduling between the former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chair Najam Sethi and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) general secretary Jay Shah who is also the head of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). Originally slated to be held solely in Pakistan, the tournament is also being played in Sri Lanka owing to security concerns in Pakistan.

However, weather conditions in Sri Lanka have already disrupted matches, leading to the highly-anticipated India-Pakistan Group A clash being abandoned due to rain.

Najam Sethi, the former PCB Managing Committee Chairman responsible for the Asia Cup hybrid model, was not very happy with the situation and the scheduling of games in Sri Lanka. He had earlier claimed that he wanted UAE to be the co-host and not Sri Lanka but Shah and ACC did not agree to it due to political reasons.

Shah refuted the claims by stating that UAE weather was not conducive for ODIs ahead of a World Cup.

Now Sethi has taken a jibe at the BCCI and ACC as rain forecasts loomed over Colombo. He said that ACC was ready to move the game to Hambantota to avoid rain interruptions but later changed their mind and also asked if “India afraid to play and lose to Pakistan?”

Sethi took to X (formerly Twitter) to take aim at the BCCI for scheduling matches in Colombo despite rain being the forecast:

“BCCI/ACC informed PCB today that they had decided to shift next India-Pak match from Colombo to Hambantota because of rain forecasts. Within one hour they changed their mind and announced Colombo as the venue. What’s going on? Is India afraid to play and lose to Pakistan Look at the rain forecast!,” he said.

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While Shah hasn’t responded yet, former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh hit back at Sethi’s claim and criticised him for saying India is “afraid” of facing Pakistan.

“Don’t know what Najam Sethi is smoking nowadays. I don’t know how is he saying that they were the favourites or India does not want to play Pakistan,” Harbhajan Singh said on Sports Today.

“Please someone give him the whole record where India have beaten them more number of times whenever they have played against each other. This is baseless kind of a thing for him, with the kind of stature that he holds at this moment for Pakistan cricket,” he added.

Harbhajan further challenged Sethi, stating that India are ready to face Pakistan at any venue. He said that PCB needed to sit down with the Asian Cricket Council to determine the tournament’s location.

India vs Pakistan match in Asia Cup Super Four will take place on Sunday.