Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques has revealed it took team management a few days to resolve a “misunderstanding” between Babar Azam and Steve Smith following a denied single during their Big Bash League (BBL) match against Sydney Thunder last week.
The incident occurred on the final delivery of the 11th over when Smith dismissed a single offered by Babar to ensure he would be on strike for the Power Surge – a tactical phase where only two fielders are allowed outside the circle.
Henriques said the incident was a result of the cultural difference between Australian and Pakistani players.
“It took a few days for it to settle down,” Henriques said during the qualifying final against the Perth Scorchers. “To be honest, think it’s just a bit of a misunderstanding of each other’s culture.”
“It’s a pretty common thing in our culture and maybe for him (Babar) he wasn’t used to it and didn’t fully understand it. Once it was explained to him he was totally fine. They’ve kissed and made up and it’s two of the bigs back on friendly terms.”
Smith had reportedly informed Babar one over earlier that he intended to take the first ball of the wave during play. Babar, dismissed for 47 off 39 balls, seemed visibly unhappy with the decision.
During the post-match presentation, Smith said the captain and coach had asked him to take the Power Surge at the ten-over mark.
“I thought, ‘Nah, give it an over. I’m going to hit the short boundary. I’m not going to screw up the first over. I’m going to try and get 30 from that over’. [I] think we got 32 so that was a good result. Not sure Babar was too happy about me hitting that single back,” he added.
Meanwhile, Henriques said head coach Greg Shipperd took the lead in talking to Babar.
“[We are] always tried to understand … we could visibly see that he was quite upset about what was happening on the pitch, so we had to try to understand why he felt that way. When we got to the bottom of it, it was okay.”
It is pertinent to mention that Babar, who was brought in as an outright signing by the Sixers for BBL 15, has struggled in the ongoing tournament as he has so far managed to amass 202 runs in 11 innings at a modest average of 22.44 and a dismal strike rate of 103.06.
