Every story has two sides – be it a news item, a film or a book you are reading. Pakistan’s sacked captain and ‘former’ all-rounder Shahid Afridi is a combo with all three features. He is a news item waiting to be covered, a film with enough twists and turns than a Hollywood flick and a book that unravels a new mystery on each page.Let me make myself clear, I am a Shahid Afridi-fan. No batsman can hit fastest centuries like he did. No one can bamboozle batsmen the way he does with the ball. He used to be a class act as a skipper since he single-handedly took a tooti phooti team into the semi finals of the World Cup. But his recent decisions have only made me look for an alternative because frankly, he doesn’t make sense. Just like his recent batting, he hits the ball without thinking of the outcome. Just like his bowling, he delivers a faster one when the wicket-keeper is standing up, near the stumps. And just like his captaincy, he makes bold decisions with thinking of the consequences.
He has retired twice from test cricket so his ‘first’ retirement from the limited overs game shouldn’t be taken seriously. He says he wants to play county cricket without realizing that the board can cancel all NOCs granted to him (and newsflash … they have just done that!). He claims he will never play cricket under the current regime, yet he doesn’t realize what he will write in response to the show cause notice that has been sent to him. He may have taken more than 300 wickets in one day matches and scored more than 6000 runs but his bowling average is over 30, and batting average stays below 25 (when it should be the other way round!).
He is a great player but nobody likes a rat. The board blames Shahid Afridi is the weak link in its information desk as he allegedly leaks sensitive information to the media to stay ‘in’ with his journalist friends. They may not be right, but Shahid Afridi has to answer that himself as that’s one of the reasons why he was sacked as captain.
He may be a great cricketer but then, his dismissals in last few innings raise eyebrows to his commitment as a batsman. He may present himself with a halo over his head but he is no saint. No other cricketer has been saved back and forth by the board than him (after Shoaib Akhtar, may be). Afridi was fined and banned for damaging the pitch during a test match against England, he hit a spectator with the bat in South Africa during an international match, he foul-mouthed with players most notably from India when they played against each other and – the best of all – chewed the ball in a one-day match against Australia in order to make the ball move.
All these incidents happened after he had made a name for himself in international match, and also become a regular part of the team. Sadly, his supporters fail to realize that the damage he has done to his country is far more than the wickets he has taken, the runs he has scored and the catches he has held on to. Or does the verdict hang in balance? It’s up to you to decide.