{"id":377223,"date":"2026-01-18T17:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377223\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T17:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:31:15","slug":"steve-smith-clears-air-on-babar-azam-fallout-amid-tantrum-report-were-just-chatting-about-golf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377223\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Smith clears air on Babar Azam fallout amid ‘tantrum’ report: ‘We’re just chatting about golf’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia batting star Steve Smith<\/a>, on Sunday, cleared the air on his relationship with Pakistan\u2019s batting star Babar Azam<\/a> amid reports that the latter felt \u201cdisrespected\u201d by his Sydney Sixers teammate after being denied a single during their Big Bash League<\/a> match against the Sydney Thunder last Friday, and that he threw a \u201cstunning tantrum\u201d following the incident.<\/p>\n

\"SteveSteve Smith and Babar Azam are part of Sydney Sixer squad in BBL<\/p>\n

Speaking to the broadcasters ahead of the Sixers\u2019 match against the Brisbane Heat at the Gabba on Sunday, Smith was asked by Isa Guha: \u201cHave you and Babar made up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was quick to play down the speculation, insisting there was nothing untoward between the two. The broadcast then showed a clip from the team\u2019s pre-match training session, where Smith and Babar were seen chatting. The former Australia captain revealed they were discussing golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, he\u2019s good. We were just chatting before. I thought he batted really well the other night and we had a good partnership. We were talking about our golf there. He\u2019s looking forward to tonight and it\u2019s a nice wicket, so I hope we can get off to a good start again,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

What happened between Smith and Babar?<\/p>\n

Last Friday at Moore Park, Babar Azam was denied a single by Steve Smith in the 11th over of the Sydney Sixers\u2019 innings, with Smith keen to take control during the first over of the Power Surge. Babar appeared visibly unhappy with the call, but Smith backed his decision by smashing four consecutive sixes in the following over, which yielded 32 runs.<\/p>\n

Babar, albeit hesitantly, was put back on strike in the next over but was dismissed off the very first ball. On his way back to the pavilion, the former Pakistan captain cut a frustrated figure, striking the boundary cushion with his bat.<\/p>\n

According to a report by CODE Sports, Babar did not take the field during the post-match proceedings and instead isolated himself in the dressing room, feeling disrespected by Smith. The report termed the reaction an \u201cepic dummy spit\u201d and a \u201cstunning tantrum\u201d.<\/p>\n

It further claimed that Sixers head coach Greg Shipperd intervened to defuse the situation, while adding that Smith had informed Babar of his plan an over earlier during their century partnership.<\/p>\n

Smith later clarified that the move was purely tactical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spoke at the ten-over mark and they [the captain and coach] said take the surge straightaway,\u201d Smith told Channel 7. \u201cI said, \u2018Nah, give it one over. I want to hit to the short boundary. I don\u2019t want to mess up the first over. I\u2019ll try to get 30 off that over.\u2019 I think we got 32, so it was a good result. Not sure Babar was too happy with me knocking back that single.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia batting star Steve Smith, on Sunday, cleared the air on his relationship with Pakistan\u2019s batting star Babar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143484,143485,86577,26815,1721,143486,101,29607,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-377223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-ababar-azam","tag-babar-azam-tantrum","tag-bbl","tag-big-bash-league","tag-cricket","tag-smith-babar","tag-sports","tag-steve-smith","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}