Shoaib’s nonstop soap opera

Showboat Shoaib’s nonstop soap opera

Cricket | R. Mohan

Showboat Shoaib" is Pakistan cricket’s longest running soap opera. Would cricket be the same without him? As cricket’s serial offender, he has reserved a unique place for himself in the annals of the game. At the latest turn in his interesting career, the quicksilver fast bowler is once again at a crossroads.

What comes on the grapevine out of Pakistan is quite tilted in favour of the Rawalpindi Express who they believe has not derailed but merely stopped at another junction. The pro-player sentiment is so heavy in word cricket at the moment that normally anything is forgiven. There is even talk of the Pakistan Cricket Board being bypassed by the new government in Islamabad.

Shoaib does, however, test the quality of mercy in everyone because he has been guilty of so very much and accused of even much more — 1. Chucking, 2. Taking Nandrolone (performance enhancing steroid), 3. Ball tampering, 4. Using abusive language, 5. Sporting an outsized logo on his bat and 6. Hitting a teammate (Md Asif) with a bat.

Shoaib Akhtar has been banned for general indiscipline, that too for five years. In his case, this particular charge sounded so weak that PCB found itself with no friends on its side. So it is on to the legal process by which a retired judge and two others will sit in judgment on the ban.

Since what is popular also drives such judgments in sport-legal cases, it is on the cards that Shoaib will find relief somewhere in the appeal process. It would be most interesting to see if he stages yet another comeback from yet another ban or suspension. However, if the five-year ban sticks, then it is curtains on what has been a remarkable, if somewhat under-achieving career.

The colourful star may have made it hotter for himself this time by exploding at the ban announcement, throwing allegations with the speed of a boxer coming up off the floor in a desperate counter-attack.

He has raised the hackles not only of PCB’s top honcho in accusing him of asking for kickbacks but also brought former captains Inzamam and Moin Khan into the fray by wild talk on so-called approaches to throw matches. That brought the ICC anti corruption sleuths to his door.

It has always been hard to define in his case where facts stop and fiction begins. Any of his captains would say what an exasperating experience they have had in predicting his moods. In fact, the bowler credited with sending down the fastest ball in cricket in the era of speed radar, has also enjoyed the worst record of pulling out at the last minute, leaving his team in disarray at the start of many an international match.

It is remarkable that in a man who has been charged with so many misdemeanours that he sees no wrong in anything that he has done. He is ever the injured innocent set upon by forces driven by jealousy. Captains and coaches have tried to tap his vast bowling talent, with a decreasing rate of success as time has also flown.

He may not be the world’s most consistently successful fast bowler on the scene now. He does, however, make a thrilling spectacle with an extended runup, an hyperactive delivery action and an hyper-extended elbow that never makes it easy for the batsman to pick the ball coming off the hand.

His bean balls are inevitably the nastiest, his villainous scowl and a semi apology making them even more sinister.

Not without reason has the standard joke in Pakistan been "Shoaib Actor" whenever his name crops up. Many former players have stood by him in his latest run-in with the establishment. On this side of the border, Shoaib has found a sympathiser in his team owner, Shah Rukh Khan.

The Bollywood star and the flamboyant fast bowler, who has probably received more film offers than any cricketer in history, have shared such a chemistry that there was no doubt at all that he would land up near Howrah, with the Knight Riders in Kolkata. The question now is will the Pindi Express take off again?

(From Asian Age)