Should Afridi Retire?

Should Afridi Retire?

Its more than 16 years now when a storm hit Gymkhana Club Ground, Nairobi, time is so old than even one day cricket was being played in all whites occasionally. A 16 years old rookie in all whites without a helmet was sent in as pinch hitter but who could have imagined that a pinch hitter will put record books holders in quite a bit of extra work. Soon after his entry Nairobi saw a rain, a rain of cricket balls. There was sixes and there were plenty of them. 100 runs in 37 balls against a bowling attack including Muralitharan, Vaas and Dharmasena, Pundits said that Pakistan’s Jayasuriya has announced himself, but soon they changed their statements to “Of Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi it can safely be said that cricket never has and never will see another like him”.

Years have passed by; there is no one day cricket in all whites anymore, 16 years old rookie is now 32 years old Expert mode enemy for any rookie that comes in the game. After that storm in Nairobi, he himself has said quite a few times that he is a specialist bowler who can bat “a bit” but his actions time and again have put his statement under scrutiny. That’s why every time he comes in with a bat, crowd expect every ball to meet them in stands and when he tries and fails to do that crowd suddenly questions his irresponsible attitude in batting. An average of 35 run and strike rate of 80 could have made Afridi a great all-rounder but it definitely wouldn’t have made him “Boom Boom”. Cricket has seen many great all-rounders but it hasn’t seen a “Boom Boom” and that’s what crowd wants him to be a “Boom Boom” not an all-rounder. So then what’s the point of criticizing his style of play when he has made all of us go wild with same style? This shows the weirdness in Pakistan Cricket fans.

There are two types of Pakistan Cricket fans, first are the fans that follow each match each bowl and second are seasonal birds that come to watch cricket when Pakistan Plays in a world tournament, and when these seasonal birds asks The Afridi to quit international cricket after one bad tournament, it’s simply criminal. In his last T20 international he played before the World T20 started he scored 50 and took two wickets and won the match single handedly for Pakistan against Sri Lanka and helped them to square the series. Seasonal birds won’t know that but a true fan would. Even for the seasonal birds “The Afridi” was leading wicket taker and last world tournament and captained a team of turkeys and made them Tigers and reached semi finals. So judging a player and a player as miraculous as Afridi on 6 matches, well then May God helps you.

History tells us that when we respect a hero we get another in reward, We respected Fazal Mehmood, we got Imran Khan, we respected Imran Khan we got Wasim and Waqar, we respected Wasim and Waqar we got Shoaib Akhtar, we respected Shoaib Akhtar we got Umar Gul, we respected Hanif Muhammad we got Zaheer Abbas, we respected Zaheer Abbas we got Inzmam-ul-Haq, we respected Inzmam-ul-Haq we got Umar Akmal, we respected Abdul Qadir we got Mushtaq Ahmed, we respected Mushtaq Ahmed we got Saqlain Mushtaq, we respected Saqlain Mushtaq we got Saeed Ajmal, but whom we respected and we got Shahid Afridi? Yes, he is a gift from God, and if we respect him we may get another one, and if we disrespect him we may end up agreeing with the man who said “Of Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi it can safely be said that cricket never has and never will see another like him”.  

16 years of cricket may be are enough, so should he quit? Answer is no. Not like this. Not on his low, he is loin, and loins never run and I’m sure he won’t either. Not before world of cricket sees another storm hitting a cricket ground like Gymkhana Club Ground, Nairobi did 16 years ago.