Shahid Afridi : A Real All-Rounder

It was late 1996,when Mushtaq Ahmed got injured during the four nation tournament, Sameer Cup, held at Kenya. Pakistan wanted a genuine leg spinner to replace Mushtaq and brought in a very promising, dashing 16-year old Pathan into the squad. Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi was introduced to the cricketing world then. He did not have a very great debut, going wicketless and did not get to bat as well.But when he was promoted to No.3 as a pinch-hitter, he came up with the fastest century till date in One Day Internationals. Afridi’s first 2 matches was somehow how his whole career has been. If Afridi’s career path was drawn on a graph, a Mathematics professor can use it to teach his students the sine function.

Shahid Afridi‘s cricketing career has been marred by so many controversies that people fail to see his fantastic all round abilities as a player. He is one of the world’s greatest leg-spinners,though one might not find in him the grace that is present in Shane Warne, but he has close to 370 wickets in International matches. Though he was brought in as a bowler,who could bat, Afridi has opened the innings for his Pakistan on many occasions and has a decent average of about 24 in ODIs with a whopping strike rate of 114 after 325 matches. He has also done well as a captain, his best achievement being,taking his side to the semifinals of the Cricket World Cup 2011.

In September 2007, just before the first World T20 championship began, there was huge news about Shoaib Akhtar,one more prolific player, whose controversies overshadow his skills, hitting his teammate,Mohammad Asif,involved in the spot fixing scandal. Oh man,is there any Pakistani cricketer who has never been involved in a controversy, probably that should be discussed in a separate article. And when the hearing was done,it was revealed that Akhtar accidentally hit Asif during an altercation with another teammate of his. Apparently, the other teammate had insulted his family. And yet again,the teammate was none other than our very own, Shahid Afridi.

Afridi has been involved in a lot of violations of conduct on and off the cricket field. He is someone who tries to use his all round abilities in all the ways possible. One of the biggest talked controversies was during the final ODI between Australia and Pakistan at WACA in 2009. Afridi was named in as the stand-in skipper in the absence of Mohammad Yousuf. He was caught biting the ball,twice,and that too on camera. Though it has been there over centuries that the Pakistani players are involved in ball tampering,this was the first time when someone bit the cricketing ball. Afridi though later said in an interview to Geo TV,“I shouldn’t have done it. It just happened. I was trying to help my bowlers and win a match, one match”. As a captain, he felt, he could do what best he could with the ball. Pakistan lost the match by 2 wickets and the series 5-0.

In March 2010, just before the Asia Cup, Pakistan Cricket Board sacked Mohammad Yousuf from captaincy and made Shahid Afridi as the skipper. He had a brilliant outing as a batsman in this series scoring 2 centuries in 3 innings. He was then made captain for all the 3 formats of the game. He led Pakistan to the tour of England. He was playing in test matches after a long hiatus. And this comeback again did not last for long,as he retired from test cricket again,after the first test in Lords,feeling he was missing the right temperament for the longer version. Again in October 2010,when the squad was picked for the South Africa series at UAE, he created a stir,by talking to the media,telling he was not consulted in the team selection.

His captaincy saw a lot of decent performances from his side, and he was kind of trying to regroup the Pakistan team,with a lot of youngsters making their way into the team. There were very little misunderstandings within the team,and the bonding in the team was the best one had seen in the last 3-4 years of Pakistan Cricket. He started delivering really well with the ball,and single handedly won matches for his team. With a string of decent performances as a skipper and due to a lot of other inside happenings, Shahid Afridi, was named captain of the Pakistan team for World Cup 2011.

Pakistan finished at the top of their group table, losing just a one match out of the 6 round robin games. Very few people expected this bunch of fringe players along with some experienced campaigners to gel so well and bring out such a stupendous performance. Afridi was the nucleus around which the whole team came together and he performed really well as a leg spinner. When Dhoni claimed he had misread the pitch after the Pakistan match,he was hailed as a fantastic skipper by the cricket gurus in India for accepting his mistake. When Afridi got out to his trademark slog against the Aussies and made a comment at the post match conference saying,“Don’t ask. Very irresponsible shot as captain. On a stage like that.”,he was ridiculed. Infact when Afridi got out like that,Wasim Akram, erstwhile captain, now a commentator,was heard on air saying,“I’ve been saying this for more than 21 years to Afridi. He has to learn.”

Coming to the incident that made me write this article. A few days back, Afridi quit from international cricket,having made his decision after the humiliation he got at the hands of Pakistan Cricket Board. This was the result of a rift between Afridi and coach Waqar Younis over team selection issues. Afridi has told he is ready to play for Pakistan,but only under a different set of board members.Lots of former players have come in support of Afridi.Moin Khan was quoted saying,“This is a mistake of PCB administration”.

Personally I feel a lot for this man, leading his team who are otherwise so engulfed with controversies to the semifinals of the World Cup just 2 months back. Shahid Afridi should and will definitely make a comeback, for the cricketing world needs one of its most flamboyant all rounders of all time. Insha Allah.