Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi

This post was written by Nikhil Ghanekar, as part of his sports assignment for Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. 

He can be reached at ghanekar.nikhil@gmail.com

Picture courtesy: shahidafridi.tv

He hoicked the second ball he faced in One-Day international cricket for a six over mid-wicket. In the same match, he went on to score the fastest century in One-day cricket (37 balls) and shocked the then world champions Sri-Lanka at the Nairobi Gymkhana in 1996.  Ninety of his 102 runs were scored in fours (6) and sixes(11), his eleven sixes in that innings is still third in the list of most sixes in a one-day innings. We are talking about Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi, popularly known as Shahid Afridi or ‘Boom Boom Afridi’, one of the most explosive batsmen and valuable leg-spinners cricket has ever seen. Born in Khyber Agency which comes under the FATA (Federally administered tribal areas) Afridi is a true Pathan, aggressive and impulsive on field and shy off it.

Afridi’s career has been anything but ordinary. For starters, he was selected in the One-day squad as a leg-spin bowler and not a top-order batsman. It was Afridi’s first captain, Saaed Anwar who sent Afridi one-down on that fateful day against Sri-Lanka, where he became the youngest centurion on debut pulverizing the Lankan attack using Waqar Younis’ bat! He realized his true potential of a genuine bowling all-rounder after a good 10 years into his career. Afridi can be a lethal leg-spinner on his day, mixing his traditional leg-breaks with rapid googlies bowled at 110 kilometers. In fact, he took a fifer on his test debut against Australia at Karachi, the only time he notched up this figure. Afridi is essentially a clean hitter, with an extremely strong bottom-hand. A semi-slog over deep mid-wicket with minimal feet movement and maximum hand-eye co-ordination where the ball usually lands in the last row of a stand or the car-park has become the ‘Afridi’ shot.

Afridi’s batting can be best described as ‘Sanath Jayasurya’ on speed, with lesser one’s and two’s, zero patience and mighty contempt for any bowler. Afridi’s batting style has been criticized more often than not, for lacking a sense of responsibility and for choosing blind aggression and brute power over calm decimation and a wily approach. But that’s Afridi, unique, brash and unapologetic.

Like many youngsters in Pakistan cricket who made an early debut, Afridi too could have been found in wilderness, lost, after making a hash of his talent and potential, but thanks to his all-round abilities and leniency on the part of Pakistani selectors, he is very much a part of Pakistan cricket. In fact, Afridi has been named the captain of the T-20 side for the World Cup in the Caribbean, starting at the end of this month.

Pakistan’s coaches and team management are to be blamed equally for Afridi’s lost greatness. They played Afridi in the top-order repeatedly, failing to realize or positively change his wayward temperament. Besides, his became a case of the goose laying golden eggs. Expecting a player like Afridi to counter new-ball movement to score heavily in the first 15 overs was sheer foolishness. ‘A consistent Afridi’ had become a famous oxymoron in the cricketing parlance. It was only in the mid 2000’s that the team management pushed him down the order and coaxed him into concentrating on his spin bowling. Although it must not be ignored that he has played most of his explosive innings as an opener, at different stages of his career.

Afridi also pioneered what has become a trend in cricket today, retiring from Test cricket to concentrate on the shorter forms of the game. Afridi quit test cricket in 2006, his record was much better in the longer format compared to ODI’s.  In 26 tests, Afridi scored 1,683 runs at an average of 37.40, with five centuries to his credit and took 47 wickets at an average of 34.89.

Controversies have also been a part of his career. On 21st November 2005, he was banned for a test match and two ODIs for deliberately damaging the pitch during the second test match against England. TV cameras caught him ‘roughing’ the pitch with his boots as play was held up after a gas canister exploded just behind the boundary rope at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad. Recently, in a match against Australia Afridi was caught by the cameras openly biting the match-ball, an action which has cost him Rs.3 million. Such aberrant behaviour personify Afridi.

T-20 is a format; Afridi had perhaps taken birth for. Although T-20 has come in the latter part of his career, Afridi has found his true calling in this format, winning the player of the tournament in the inaugural edition in 2007 and steering his team to the T-20 crown with superlative all-round performances in the semi-final and the final. Captaincy might lead to consistency gate-crashing in a pre-dominantly inconsistent career, but Afridi won’t change much.

As Michael Holding once said, ‘Cricket is not cricket without Afridi.’