Shahid Afridi The Ultimate Showman: Jazba and Self Deception Personified!

Feb 22, 2017 at 11:13 AM

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Shahid Afridi The Ultimate Showman: Jazba and Self Deception Personified!

On the popular question and answer site – Quora, one user had an interesting question that had me in splits within seconds after viewing it. The question was – Can any player, after retiring from international cricket, come back and join the side?

More funny was that he wanted to know the procedure as well!

“If yes, what is the process?” he writes.

The fact that the question came to his mind clearly reflects a fact that he wasn’t a keen follower of cricket.

Ask me why I judged him this quickly?

Because had he been a regular follower of the game, he would have perhaps known about the ‘phenomenon’ called Shahid Khan Afridi. His story never fails to make people chuckle.

We will talk about this bit later in the piece. First of all, let’s just recall who he is and what he stood for his fans in Pakistan as well as around the globe.

Shahid Afridi has a legacy. A very strong one, indeed. The man defined words like ‘hope’ and ‘heroism’, ‘fan worship’ among Pakistani cricket lovers.

He was an evergreen, ageless ‘rockstar’ for Men in Green whose popularity remained unshaken all these years despite many of his immature acts both on the field and off it.

Pakistan fans, many times, headed straight towards the exit once he got out during an important chase. That, in a nutshell, is what defined him as a cricketer.

However, there is something else that highlights his entire career. In fact, overshadows his entire career, unfortunately. This also happens to be the reason I felt that the ‘Quoran’ asking the lame question about retirement and coming back from retirement was an absolute cricket deprived personality, at least from the last decade.

His question was answered already by two gentlemen. But I felt about elaborating a bit more about the retirement saga of Afridi.

The 36-year-old Afridi, affectionately called Lala, was simply never sure about the ‘final call’ and showed a great love for retiring and again coming back.

He never felt he was old enough and had verbal skirmishes with the cricket authorities back in his country. He simply couldn’t make up his mind to take the mature decision of calling quits.

His flirtatious timeline of retirement was marked by 5 retirements and four comebacks (assuming this his last). It was impossible to predict his retirement. He literally made sure that he lived up to his name. – Shahid which means witness in Pashtun.

The first time this phenomenon witnessed was almost a decade ago when on 12th April 2006, Afridi retired temporarily citing to focus on 2007 World Cup and spend time with family. 15 days later he makes a comeback

The reason? Coach Bob Woolmer needed him.

The second retirement came on July 2010 retires. This time he quit Test cricket reasoning lack of temperament for the format. This marks the end of his red ball career.

May 2011, fans witness him retire again. This time from all formats after claiming to have been humiliated by PCB. But, 5 months later withdraws retirement and makes a comeback after changes in the PCB management

The fourth incident occurred on December 2014 when he announced his that he was quitting from ODIs after 2015 World Cup while stating that he was still available for the T20Is.

The story amusingly doesn’t end here. Two years later, on 25th march 2016, he states in an interview that he was still thinking of retirement and “will announce in 4-5 days.” As promised, a few days later Afridi retires once again but reconsiders his decision after “Huge pressure from friends and family.

Eventually, on 19th February 2017, Shahid Afridi, spoke to the press in Sharjah at the end of a Pakistan Super League match where he had just played a typical 54-run knock off just 28 balls, pulled the curtains down on his 20-year-international career.

Well, for all things written with a tone of amusement, by no means one can forget the achievements he had in his career. His trailblazing performances would be missed. The thrill which he infused in any contest would be missed whenever Pakistan will play in future.

He was almost a medium pacer in disguise with the ball in his hand, bowling skiddy leg breaks at speeds of 120+ on some occasions. He played wearing heart on his sleeves and was all about the ‘jazba’ – the word that describes cricket in India and Pakistan. To conclude, Afridi probably ends as the ultimate showman of Pakistan cricket.

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