A very interesting interview. Thought you guys would like it as well 
**England have been terrorised by Shoaib Akhtar throughout their tour of Pakistan and, the way he tells it, with the loose recollection of a natural raconteur, his resurgence as one of the worldâs great fast bowlers was sparked by a joke from Andrew Flintoff that the Englishman has lived to regret. **
**It was in Australia in October, when Shoaib and Flintoff were team-mates in a struggling World XI, that a burst of earthy Preston wit goaded Shoaib into a concerted attempt to reclaim past glories. **
**âIt would probably be rude to put it all down to the personal comment that Freddie Flintoff made - âItâs all about the physique, he looks like Tarzan but he canât bowlâ - but he said that out in Australia and I thought âThanks for focusing meâ. I was struggling with injuries and maybe he didnât mean it like that. But it made me realise that something needed to be done. I had to find the full fast bowler in me.â **
**There is no malice, and Shoaib and Flintoff recently chatted over dinner in Lahore about how the series has unfolded. But Shoaib, once more, took his place at the table as a renowned fast bowler, an untamed, sweat-laden, lethal adversary, whose potent of mix of bouncers, yorkers and slower balls settled the Test series in Pakistanâs favour and threatened a similar outcome in the one-dayers. **
**In Australia, Shoaib was unfit and unfocused and, when he was not chosen for the Super Test, did not turn up until the last two days. He had been castigated as lazy by Worcestershireâs chairman, John Elliott. Pakistanâs coach and captain, Bob Woolmer and Inzamam-ul-Haq, privately feared that, at 30, he might be spent. **
**His status reaffirmed, he can talk of the bad times. âThere have been lots of comments made about my commitment to the team. I said to them: âI am a cricketer and I am here to serve my country to the best of my ability. Let me start with a new chapter.â Money and fame - Iâve been there and done that.â **
**It is Shoaibâs camouflaged slower ball that has eaten at Englandâs nerves. Their first instinct is to fear a 90mph head-high beamer before the ball dips mockingly towards the stumps. It did not work well in the first Test in Multan, but he retired to his room, sketched charts of Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and Michael Vaughan and decided that the slower ball, which he does not spin but wedges between his forefinger and thumb, must become part of his armoury. **
**âI practised the slower ball in the nets, I used cones and a stick, thinking that my ball should fly high to this point and dip from there. At first it wasnât dipping well. I wouldnât blame batsmen if they are playing a ball at 95mph and the next one is 60mph. Obviously, they will struggle. If it was me, I would be scared.â **
**He has not always been a thinking bowler, his bowling brain being entirely programmed in his early days by that mighty Pakistani fast bowling pair, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. "They were both there at mid-on and mid-off. Every ball I bowled, they would say, âbowl this one, bowl bouncerâ. I never used my own brain. They left and I struggled for a year. Finally I managed to pull myself up, to be a thinking bowler. **
**âI need to develop so I can be an effective one-day bowler. Thatâs why I stress âPlease allow the bouncers - fast bowlers are the charming people in the game.â If they allowed two bouncers it would make such a difference. Then the batsman is on the back foot and, if I loop the ball up and it drifts down it looks like a beamer to you. I have a 70% chance to get people out.â **
**Then, at his peak, following the 1999 World Cup, came the throwing accusations that almost forced him into retirement. There was no ICC system in place to rehabilitate suspect actions, no biomechanical studies, no 15-degree allowance in recognition that nearly every bowler delivers with a bent arm. **
**âOne day I got a call saying: 'Youâve got to fix yourself. Youâre a chucker. I thought âFair enough, what do I do now?â But there were no options. With one phone call they banned me. With another phone call they lifted the ban. Then it happened again, and again. I went to see Dennis Lillee. He took one look at my arm and said: âSorry mate, I canât help you. Go and see a doctor.â Do you expect this arm, when itâs moving, to be straight? Even a golf club bends when it moves fast.â **
**Inzamam had questioned if he could ever integrate such a wild spirit as Shoaib into a young Pakistan side seeking unity through religion but, against the odds, it has happened. Shoaib, the western-influenced playboy, now talks warmly about the happiest Pakistan side he has known. "We have had some bad times. Now weâre learning we have to be united. If someoneâs down, go and pick him up. **
âItâs to do with the religion thing as well. People are forgiving, and thatâs the best thing. I am not the strictest Muslim, but I should pray. I am Muslim. It is just an obligation. You canât get away with part-time prayers; you have to do it. But I am a bit more religious, a bit more calmed down. I stay in my room, watch videos, watch cricket, work on charts, think about the one-dayers - just take it easy.â He even talks about marriage, claiming that he has found someone but conceding that she doesnât know. When he presents Glenn McGrath as a behaviour role model, the world seems to have lost all sense of logic, but he does. âI want to settle down. [In the] next five years I would like to be a calm person, do as normal people do, like McGrath. Everybody likes to settle down. Iâd like to concentrate on my cricket. Iâve got a talent. I have to deliver.â 
Go Shoaib!!! We love you!
