The entire stadium erupts in a deafening mass of exultation. Everywhere you look faces are wreathed in unadulterated joy; the air is filled with chants of ‘Boom, boom Afridi’ or simply ‘Afrideeeeeeee’; ecstatic fans jump up and down so excitedly. The man can’t help it. Or so he would have us believe. He is a six addict. The urge to hit out is so instinctive that he just cannot resist, even though he knows how much trouble it will bring him.
No-one in world cricket plays quite like Shahid Afridi. Not Flintoff, not Pietersen, not Jayasuriya, not even Gilchrist, his slightly pigeon-toed walk to the wicket a guarantee of fireworks. All the pundits say it and its true: Boom Boom Afridi only knows how to play one way.
Afridi joined the Pakistan cricket team as a leg spinner, when Mushtaq Ahmed was injured and the former was asked to join immediately to replace him. At that time, Afridi was one of the highest wicket-taking bowlers at the under-19 level. As a result, he was considered a reliable spin bowler but no special attention was given to his batting. He made his debut on 2nd of October against Kenya, however he didn’t bat and went wicket less. In the next match against Sri Lanka, the first time he batted in international cricket, aged 16, he hit a century off 37 balls, a world record that still stands.
The decade since that debut is littered with similar feats. Shahid Afridi , the maddest of crazy maxes. A colorful all-rounder introduced to international cricket as a 16-year-old legspinner, surprised everyone but himself by pinch-hitting the fastest one-day hundred. The eleven sixes he struck also equaled the record for most in an ODI innings. Afridi became the youngest player to score an ODI century. Pakistan posted a total of 371, at the time the second-highest in ODIs, and won by 82 runs; Afridi was named man of the match.
In 75 minutes of unbelievable power-hitting, Shahid Afridi swung his bat, the match and the series as Pakistan romped home to a comprehensive five-wicket win at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. Having restricted India to 249, thanks mainly to Naved-ul-Hasan’s incisive opening spell, Pakistan rode on Afridi’s 45-ball hundred, the second-fastest in one-day internationals, and made a fighting total look paltry. He is capable of hitting almost any ball out of the park and is dangerous when in full flow.
Afridi swings its arm faster and put way more power on the ball than you could think off and the amount of variation Afridi uniforms on the ball, it gives very less margin for error for the Batsman. Fast Speed of Afridi causes the ball to reach the batsman faster than a magnetic Japanese train travels length of cricket pitch when in full flow.
The facts and stats will describe the scenario where we can see and judge his records as the one of the best Limited over cricket player. Afridi is the second player only after the Sanath Jaysuriya to have gone past 300 ODI Wickets + 6000 Runs in ODI Cricket and with only 31 years of age and physically very fit I can see him getting to 8000 Runs + 400 Wickets if he can play around 4 more years. Afridi is 3rd only to the greats of Pakistan Wasim and Waqar to have gone past 300 Wickets and if he can play the way he is currently playing he might get closer to Waqar.
Only Muralitharan(522), Anil Kumble(337) and Sanath Jayasuria(322) are the bowlers who have more wickets in ODI cricket than Shahid Afridi. Well this is the record which had to go to Shahid Afridi as he is known for his massive shots and sixes and he has more sixes to his name than any other cricketer ever, with 366 over all in all formats of the game while 288 in ODI cricket, 26 in T20’s which makes him the King of Sixes.
Afridi’s 5/16 against Kenya: Afridi started out his 2011 World Cup 2011 campaign in a great fashion and tore Kenya batting lineup apart with 5/16 which happens to be the best bowling figures by a Captain in World Cups he replaced Kapil Dev as the ‘Record holder’.
He also scored four consecutive sixes off a Harbhajan Singh over in a Test match against India in January 2006, matching a feat that Kapil Dev achieved in 1990. Shahid Khan Afridi also made 32 runs off a Malinga Bandara over in an ODI game at Abu Dhabi in 2007. He struck four consecutive sixes and it was the 2nd most expensive over in ODI history. He has crashed the elite club of record-holders.
In 2001, Afridi signed a contract to represent Leicestershire. In five first-class matches he scored 295 runs at an average of 42.14, including a highest score of 164, and took 11 wickets at an average of 46.45; Afridi also played 11 one day matches for the club, scoring 481 runs at an average of 40.08 and taking 18 wickets at 24.04. His highest score of 95 came from 58 balls in a semi-final of the C&G Trophy to help Leicestershire beat Lancashire by seven wickets. Derbyshire County Cricket Club signed Afridi to play for them in the first two months of the 2003 English cricket season. In June 2004 Afridi signed with English county side Kent to play for them in three Twenty20 matches and one Totesport League match.
Pakistan cricket was nearing its doom when a lost gem regained its shine and saved it. It all started from the ICC World Twenty20 2009. When the tournament started on 5th June 2009, nobody knew that by the time it would end a man will have solely led his country to glory, nobody knew that someone, who wasn’t expected to, would rise to the occasion and nobody knew that BOOM BOOM AFRIDI will be back in style!
We heard of the dual word, ‘Boom Boom’ when Shahid Afridi punished the Indian bowlers with sixes after sixes in New Delhi.
Years ago, while waiting for a flight from San Francisco airport, this person ran into three Indian students, who asked me if he was an Indian, to which he said he was from their neighboring country. “Oh! So you are from the land of Boom Boom Shahid Afridi?”
“Do you like to watch him bat?” he said
“Yes, we love to see him bat but not when he is playing against our boys,” was the reply.
Boom Boom was the nickname given to him by none other than Ravi Shastri, while he was commentating on an India-Pakistan ODI.
Shahid Afridi is a first-rate, kick-ass power-baseliner. It’s just that that’s not all he is. There’s also his intelligence, his occult anticipation, his unique cricket sense, his ability to read and manipulate opponents, to mix spins and speeds, to misdirect and disguise, to use tactical foresight and peripheral vision and kinesthetic range instead of just rote pace — all this has exposed the limits, and possibilities, of men’s cricket as it’s now played.
Also note that T20 is today’s thing, Afridi did it almost 2 decades back which today’s t20 still cannot match, the brutal 37 ball century in its first ever landing on the green carpet. Afridi is the darling of Pakistan cricket, and it is a revealing love affair. ‘We all admire Afridi because he feels no pressure when he walks out to bat. “When I’m on the pitch, I’m the ruler,” that’s what he thinks. He forgets about the match situation, and just goes for his shots. He’s very popular because we like to see the ball hit high in the air.’
During the World Twenty20 2009, chants of “Afridi, Afridi” were as common as “Pakistan zindabad”, and he has admitted to being affected by the adulation. “While in the dressing room, I try to remain calm and think about building my innings,” he said in a TV interview a few years ago. “But when I go out there, it’s like hitting a wall of sound and I forget whatever we had discussed minutes earlier. I just try and smash every ball.”
Debuting as captain against the West Indies in the Champions Trophy in South Africa back in 2009, Afridi has played 34 matches as ODI captain till April 2011. Under his captaincy, Pakistan has had 18 victories. 16 of the losses under his captaincy have included thrilling matches against India and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup, a last over loss against England at Leeds, and a two run loss to South Africa in Dubai and the World Cup 2011 Semi Final again India I lament these losses, they still hurt, but these were close matches, and thoroughly enjoyable to watch. He ended 2010 with 19 wickets, becoming the joint-highest-wicket-taker with Shoaib Akhtar. Did I forget to mention that he top-scored that year with the bat too? He was also declared the Wicket taker with 23 wickets in the World cup 2010.
Of Shahid Afridi it can safely be said that cricket never has and never will see another like him. To say he is an all-rounder is to say Albert Einstein was a scientist; it tells a criminally bare story. It is hard enough for him being the Pakistani cricket team captain. Harder still, when the country is an absolute wreck and counts on a grand victory in the Cricket World Cup as respite from its accumulating miseries. And hardest still, when with the weight of these expectations, one captains Pakistan to a devastating loss against the old arch-rival India in the semi-final.
He should be heralded as a national hero for helping the country near single handedly lift the T-20 World Cup and did a great job of showing the nation how to convert their potential into results in high pressure situations in the process. Something that the nations cricket team has had a history of being awful at as of late.
Shahid Afridi brought several successes to Pakistan from a young age all the way up to his late twenties. He started his career with the fastest century the world had ever seen and managed to restore a sense of pride into a nation still hungry for further cricketing success having lost many of its heroes to retirement after the 1992 World Cup victory. He had a strange metamorphosis making his contribution primarily first as a batsman but went on to become an unpredictable spin bowler worthy of mention.
Afridi is someone who has performed consistently better as ODI captain. His ability to lead the team in these tumultuous times has been commendable; three of our core players have been suspended, our wicket keeper decided to fly to England hours before the team was meant to play a series-decider while the players of his choice are not included in the squad.
Misbah-ul-Haq (the other alternative) is sensible, I agree. He led us to our first test win after four years and scored 50’s in seven out of eight innings as captain of the test team. But does this qualify him as captain of a team he was not a part of for most of the year. Misbah was dropped from the ODI side, and dropped again after making his comeback in the first two games against South Africa in the UAE. Why should he be brought back as captain?
To better understand Shahid Afridi’s motivation is in my opinion folly, to ridicule him is just a demonstration of utter stupidity.
He hemmed and hawed at the difficult questions on Pakistan’s performance clearly expressing his frustration both at his fielders for having dropped more chances than one can count (“Sachin was lucky”) and at his batsmen’s indiscretion including his own (“we played irresponsible shots”). At the same time, he wished India well for the final as only a genuine sportsman would and apologized to his nation unexpectedly at the end of Shastri’s questions, betraying a deep emotion of having failed in his mission.
Most revealingly, Afridi retained a hint of a smile throughout the post-match conference—a smile of a man who had lost a game but refused to lose his dignity at a time when it was easiest to do so. Long after the dust settles at Mohali, Mumbai and this World Cup, I will carry this image with me—of a beaten captain who lost a cricket game but won something infinitely more valuable- a country’s genuine and heartfelt respect.
Shahid Afridi with his inspirational approach had brought the team together as a unit. He has taken the seniors in confidence and extracted the best out of the younger cricketers. Cricketers, poor souls; they carry the weight of the world and the hopes of their nation and this is what Afridi has exactly done.
According to former captain Imran Khan, Afridi has shown unique motivational skills, along with his well-documented batting and bowling exploits.”Afridi is the only man who can motivate and unite the team,” Khan, a World Cup-winning skipper in 1992, said during this year’s tournament. “He can win matches single-handedly.”
Wasim Akram, Pakistan’s captain during the 1999 World Cup, highlighted Afridi’s resilience as one of his greatest assets. “It’s remarkable that his best comes when the going gets tough,” Akram said. When Matthew Hoggard was asked to name the world’s most intimidating batsman, his answer – quick as a flash – was Afridi.
Almost anyone who loves Cricket and follows it with Passion, over the last few years, has experienced what might be termed ‘Afridi’ Moments. These are times, as you watch the Entertainment appear in cricket, when the Bat is lifted and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you’re O.K.
It’s the final of the 2009 T20 World Cup. Afridi Facing the Magical Murali in the 13th over. There’s Nerves Pumping everywhere, one with the distinctive butterfly shape of today’s power-baseline game, Afridi and Murali yanking each other from side to side, each trying to win this crucial moment of the match, until suddenly Afridi lets his power of Mind to overtake his physical movements and smacks it hard right into the crowd, trying to put a stamp on legendary Murali, which in fact he does, And there’s that familiar loud noise from the Pakistani crowd after it erupts.
Honestly, He is the best entertainment in cricket currently available, maybe the best ever. A 60 Minutes program featuring on him is enough to tell you anything you want to know about Mr. Muhammad Shahid Khan Afridi — his background, his home town of Kohat in Khyber Agency Pakistan, the limits of his talent, his junior cricketing career, his early problems with temper and his recent one’s also, his beloved coach, how that coach’s accidental death in 2007 both shattered and annealed Afridi and helped make him what he now is, Afridi’s 280 plus sixes in ODI career , his match winning inning in Chennai, his unusually steady and mature commitment to his religion which stays with him practically, his good and bad sportsmanship and evident overall decency and thoughtfulness and charitable largess — it’s all just a Google search away.
Soon afterwards, the Afiridi brigade outclassed the West Indians in the Caribbean and won the ODI series. From here onwards, the fairytale came to its end as Mr. Butt again emerged from behind the scenes. He sacked Afridi for his brilliant performance, removed him from captaincy for uttering a few words against the coach, and hence, controversy took birth again.
The rollercoaster career of Shahid Afridi took a steep dive when the all-rounder announced his retirement from international cricket in protest against the ‘treatment meted out’ to him by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
South Africa before beating New Zealand, leading Pakistan to the semi-final of the 2011 World Cup and winning the One-Day International (ODI) series 3-2 in the West Indies, Afridi was sacked as the ODI captain reportedly as punishment for speaking out against the team management. “Self-respect is something I hold in high esteem and this board has done nothing but downgraded me. I’ve had enough of this and took this decision after careful consideration.” said Shahid Khan Afridi.
The PCB has again given us a practical example of how incompetent it is. Afridi may have paid the price for his outburst against Waqar, but there are other villains in this saga. PCB chairman Ijaz Butt has taken the art of hiring and firing captains to a new level. He terminated the captaincy of Younus Khan, one of the most perceptive captains the country has ever had, simply because a cabal of players demanded it. Butt’s disastrous reign needs to be addressed, preferably by showing him the door.
Here, you have a captain who just wants his say in the final eleven, not the whole squad, and you axe him.
You would definitely not want him to stay as captain. Instead, you would choose a 37-year-old. I have nothing against Misbah, but he should not be captaining the Pakistani side on the tour to Ireland. For a man who led his squad to a fairy-tale run at the World Cup and brought together the whole of Pakistan, a job many of our celebrated leaders outside the world of cricket have failed to do, Afridi deserves more respect.
If you think about it, this is exactly how Ijaz Butt goes about changing the Pakistan cricket team’s captains. For me, this is just another failure on Butt’s part. Sure, Pakistan won the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup, made it to the semi-finals in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy, played well in the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup, and exceeded our expectations in the 2011 ICC World Cup – was all of this Butt’s success or a reflection of the talent in Pakistan?
What really makes fans like me angry about this whole incident is that Shahid Afridi’s career has to needlessly suffer when these issues could have been sorted out with the PCB in a professional manner. After all he has done to make his country proud on the world stage; the PCB did not even let him speak. He was never even granted common courtesy by the PCB to state problems that got in his way of progress.
The PCB, so far, has shown they are not decent people—the merely have their own agendas and do not care about their responsibilities. If this is the way the PCB behaves with hardworking/pro-active Shahid Afridi, then this incident will certainly lower the team spirit and morale of the cricket team–because tomorrow, someone else from the cricket team will be made a victim to suit the PCB’s purpose. Sadly, it’s always the good, competent men like Shahid Afridi that suffer and incompetent and incapable people are still holding their positions
“His decision to retire, after people like Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf left, should be treated as a serious issue and I demand the Pakistan government to form a committee and resolve this,” said Latif.
The former One Day skipper of Pakistan, Shahid Afridi, after mass support from the people of Pakistan, also received commendation from the country’s top politician, Nawaz Sharif who praised Afridi’s contributions towards the national team and insisted that the whole nation is behind the player.
“Afridi made great contributions in the world cup, he hoisted Pakistan’s flag on Indian soil and the Pakistan Cricket Board should respect him.”
The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) appreciated the way the 31-year-old all-rounder had led the national team against all odds in the ICC world cup 2011.
Sharif insisted that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should not forget that Afridi played a vital role with the ball, helping his team reach the semi-final of the mega event.
Fans on the street backed Afridi, who was known to empty stadiums when he was given out. “Afridi has taken a good decision,” said Ali Nayyer, a student at Karachi University. “PCB has mis-treated him and they should be removed so that Afridi returns, we love him.”
With the news about Pakistani cricket heartthrob breaking on the television, the local Twitterati reacted to news as per their own individual level of liking of Captain Boom Boom.
1) Ammaryasir
1 guy who united the whole nation, 1 guy who took us out of our daily miseries, 1 guy loved by everyone and PCB you managed to **** this up!
2) shahidsaeed
Ijaz Butt Namanzoor. Nepotism, arm twisting ki chairmanship naheen chalay gi naheen chalay gi. Go Ijaz Butt Go, Go Ijaz Butt Go #SaveAfridi
3) sharmeenochinoy
#Afridi u r an honorable man- our hearts break but v r proud that u rejected the system- I wish v could collectively do the same #Pakistan
4) Mehmal
@ImranKhanPTI can we please have a dharna against Ijaz Butt? #saveAfridi
5) faizanlakhani
I salute Afridi for standing against dictator of PCB Ijaz Butt, Lala, my respect for you will always be so high !!
There is a tendency to overstate the achievements of players when they depart, but Shahid Afridi truly was one of a kind.
SHAHID KHAN AFRIDI YOU HAVE TO COME BACK! NOT FOR YOURSELF, BUT FOR YOUR NATION, FOR YOUR COUNTRY!
Together, we will fight, fight for your rights. You will be once again restored to the position you deserve. You will be restored as the Proud Captain of a Nation. We Will Bring you Back.
Afridi has provided fans with endless entertainment and a reason to live. He has also stomped on their hopes and snuffed out their dreams. Shahid Afridi should and will definitely make a comeback, for the cricketing world needs one of its most flamboyant all-rounders of all time. In sha Allah.
GeoSuper