Note : This thread is not meant for Akhtar bashing etc . I just found this article and thought it was worth sharing with u guys!
Shoaib Akhtar: Journey of illusion!
Why was he indolent? Pointing fingers and pushing Woolmer callously. What was Shoaib trying to prove? Had he become bigger than the game?
By Dr Nauman Niaz
Usually an energetic self-publicist, he arms himself with illusions and his cricketing prowess hasn’t been half as important to Pakistan as an ability to keep him in the public eye. Shoaib Akhtar has had a penchant for the quotable quotes. He tried to attain personality status before he actually achieved anything on the field of play. His has been a classical example of ‘big mouth equals big money’.
Once Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis’s aura waned, Shoaib became Pakistan’s modern folk hero. Anyway, as all true hipsters know, his credentials for trendiness were severely dented by long hair thirteen years out of date and a preference for second-rate Springsteen copyists Midnight Oil. Shoaib was not the type like an Imran Khan, a Wasim Akram or Waqar Younis. Public never marvelled at his complete mastery and rushed off illusively in the hope of him achieving a similar type of all-encompassing success.
Shoaib competed with Waqar and Wasim, more delusively and out loud than letting his record speak for him. He had genuine speed and could set the stage to his liking, horrifying batsmen, bruising and battering them, his consistent fitness failures arousing public’s sympathy. His macho man image didn’t shrink and he championed the up-front qualities of Argentina’s Diego Maradona. He has been a bowler who despite the public’s changeability forced himself into limelight.
He often found that no publicity is bad publicity. He has been involved in doping and night club scandals, physical battles with Bob Woolmer, not signing the central contracts (eventually he signed the contract before leaving for South Africa) arguments with colleagues, officials and compatriots, complete apathy and lack of trust in his captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, brawling in two hemispheres and still, just as everybody began to treat him as a big disappointment, he could do something amazing with the ball and be the star once again. One wonders who has been writing his bloody script then.
His problems with officials in Pakistan have been there throughout his career. Akhtar, when not picked on the Pakistan team for the tour of South Africa was really upset. Often eager to let people know his mind, about what he had been long thinking about the conspiracies being hatched against him. His has been a journey of illusion and he hasn’t suffered in silence. Only recently, at Port Elizabeth, picking four inexpensive wickets on return to international cricket, in about eleven overs he was down again with a hamstring strain.
On the third morning of the match, as Bob Woolmer expected him to get a steroid injection, losing his calm, presumably seething under the lids he pushed him back. Regrettably, the pushing and shouting evidence was provided to the world through television coverage. It made a mockery of the much touted discipline in the Pakistan camp.
Skeptical about all sorts of injections, significantly after his ‘doping’ episode, Shoaib should have realised that for on the field physical insults even the ICC gives leverage of using injury maskers or pain relievers. The team management could have asked for a Therapeutic Use Certificate (TUC) from the ICC and allowed Shoaib the use of steroids to make him available for bowling in the second innings of the Test.
He was badly needed and he should have taken the initiative seeing Inzamam-ul-Haq battling manfully with tail-enders to enhance the lead to 141. Second, without Shoaib, the onus of bowling fell upon Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami and the leggie, Danish Kaneria. With Shoaib not present, it was like testing Asif and Sami to the core. Asif and Sami both were over-bowled. Inzamam was left with no option. An injury to Asif could have ended Pakistanís future chances in the series.
Pakistan suffered. As per the reports, had not Pakistan likely to need him as a batsman during the run chase in the second innings on a wearying pitch, Shoaib would have been flown home instantly. One doubted his so frequent statements about being patriotic. Where was his patriotism when Jacques Kallis was milking runs against the fatiguing Kaneria, exhausting Asif and exasperating Sami? Shoaib was apathetic, sitting in the dressing room wearying sunshades. What good his presence would have done to the youthful colleagues? Why was he indolent? Pointing fingers and pushing Woolmer callously.
What was Shoaib trying to prove? Had he become bigger than the game? One needed to look for couple of television anchorpersons and self-imposed experts terming Shoaib as the ‘Lion of Pakistan’, ‘the ultimate’ and trying to uplift his image. These moderators and analysts had openly condemned the national selectors for not picking Shoaib first up. Would the same experts mind appearing on television again and explain how ‘super fit’ the fast bowler was before being sent to South Africa to reinforce the injury-stricken Pakistan? They appear in talkies and shows boasting about the platform where the commoners can give their peace of mind. †Shoaib’s case was a shambles; a complete disappointment.
He has had a proclivity for being in the news, whether for the right or the wrong reasons. It could be his fondness for pace, his fourth gear lifestyle, his untailored attitude towards training, his contravention and breach of discipline and galling a truck load of managers and the hierarchy at the PCB, his frequent injuries or his being on the wrong side of umpires and match referees. And Akhtar’s predisposition for providing rousing ecstasy and steep despair equally with regularity, have earned him much of his enthusiasts’ indignation and fury. His hecklers first used to criticise the evidenced-based non-seriousness, indulgences, immoderate lifestyle and self-destructive methods but now their distrust has been refueled, coercing them to believe that he lives for himself.
They doubt his commitment for the cause of Pakistan. They believe that he has grown out of proportions, believing that cricket prospers because he bowls.† One believes, the rigours of competitive, high profiled fast bowling at a heart-rendering speed that Akhtar wants to produce every delivery has taken a huge toll on his body. And it always seemed it was not sustainable in the best of circumstances. That said, one has to acknowledge that Akhtar cannot be completely absolved of blame for his career going haywire. To some he has been in the wrong hands. Instead of using injury-maskers what he needed to do was to rehabilitate thoroughly. And it’s a fact, he has often been misguided.
At Port Elizabeth, though amongst the wickets, he didn’t take the field at a crucial stage citing hamstring injury. Shoaib’s future has become a chimera, as his allegiance and rapport with the captain and the team management. Now, his career has come under its most serious risk. Grumblings about his fidelity, devotion and commitment are never far away and a brittle relationship with Inzamam and Bob Woolmer hasnít made things easier. A hamstring injury cut and a hodgepodge of fitness and attitudinal worries means he isn’t going to be there for long or has he hit the road-end by now?
Shoaib to some has blown all his chances to play for Pakistan with Inzamam, Woolmer and Dr Nasim Ashraf in place. The first two have had torrid time handling him and the last because he has been let down. Dr Nasim, on his own initiative had taken the decision to send Shoaib to South Africa, presumably on great public demand. Now, one wonders will he be looking for people who were giving assurances that Pakistan without Shoaib was like a body without heart. One feels sorry for the Chairman PCB, a man with true love for cricket at heart. He could go to any extent to help Pakistan winning. Will he be a disappointed man?
Shoaib now needs to realise, if he still wants to reinvigorate his career, he should believe the central theme of the first gateway is that you subconsciously choose or attract in your life those people and experiences you believe you deserve. In everyday life pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional – a by-product of poor choices. Your sense of worth or deservedness shapes your life by creating tendencies. If you feel worthy and deserving you tend to make productive choices (The world is my oyster). If you feel unworthy and undeserving, you tend to make destructive or limiting choices (Beggars can’t be choosers).
At each and every crossroads you are free to choose the high road-by being kind to others, working hard, finding supportive partners, and following good role models. Or you may choose the low road-by burning your bridges or choosing destructive relationships. Your sense of self-worth tends to influence whether you choose to learn easy lessons or difficult ones, to strive or to struggle, to cave in to difficulties or rise above them. Such choices determine your health habits-even your longevity. Those of us with a strong sense of self-worth are less likely to get caught up in self-destructive habits.
Coming to appreciate your worth can, in some cases, dramatically improve your circumstances by changing the choices you make and the actions you take. And as you begin to treat yourself with more respect, other people begin to do the same, since we subconsciously ‘train’ others how to treat us through messages we send through body language, tone of voice, and other subtle cues and behaviour.
Discovering your innate worth and living from the place allows you to make more constructive choices-to choose the higher roads of life. Since you are exploring this gateway, maybe now is the time for you to take stock, to reflect upon your own circumstances and sense of worth, and to determine if your life is working as well as you would like. Are you now where you want to be?
Shoaib looks like a mixture of a film idol and a plagiariser on the high tides and is the most charismatic cricketer in the world. Not underestimated but often charged of pretending. Behind his aura, beneath the macho debonair can be unveiled a highly talented bowler. However, with him breaking down at crucial junctures with Pakistan desperately needing his presence, his credibility, sense of patriotism has been a misgiving. He is not a saint but he is destructive, brawny and skilful and when everything falls into place he is the most hazardous as well as the most stimulating bowler in the world. Will the things ever fall into place; will they ever? It has been a journey of illusion; it will always be.
The writer appeared as Shoaib Akhtar’s Medical Counsel in front of the tribunal, is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK), official historian of Pakistan cricket, former assistant manager/cricket analyst of the Pakistan team, former media manager/cricket analyst of the PCB, ex-Manager Coordination of the ACC and former selector of the now defunct PCA
