Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
Is it just me or does it seem like he has already played his last game. Definitely a blow to Pakistan's WC chances if that is the case.
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
^ ustadan, he said after the wc.
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
^ No, he is right, I think he played his last game already, the one with NL thanks to akmal... that was his last game because the way Waqar had words for him (he is not any more 20-25 year guy) in the press conference is enough to tell what had gone in the dressing room :/
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
too little too late.......he should've had his ass fired 5 years ago...
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
About bloody time.
He could have had a awesome career. He was the biggest talent when he arrived on the scene.
Drugs, *****es, alcohol ruined him.
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
hero bacha tha l
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
Looking at your other posts and now this, do you mind telling your age? 
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
^ I have 9 organs, whose age ?
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
**From Cricinfo:
Ricky Ponting has been very effusive in his praise of Shoaib Akthar. Snippets: "I had some great duels with Shoaib over the years," Ponting said. "To this day, I've always said he's the fastest bowler that I've ever faced in international cricket. There's one spell that everyone can watch on the internet of him bowling to me at the WACA. That was reasonably entertaining - more so for Justin Langer, who was at the other end laughing at me all the time when I was trying to keep Shoaib's deliveries out. He was express pace, a very, very good bowler." **
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
Not to mention the genital warts 
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
**From Cricinfo:
Ricky Ponting has been very effusive in his praise of Shoaib Akthar. Snippets: "I had some great duels with Shoaib over the years," Ponting said. "To this day, I've always said he's the fastest bowler that I've ever faced in international cricket. There's one spell that everyone can watch on the internet of him bowling to me at the WACA. That was reasonably entertaining - more so for Justin Langer, who was at the other end laughing at me all the time when I was trying to keep Shoaib's deliveries out. He was express pace, a very, very good bowler." **
VERY POSITIVE OPINION FROM A LEGEND HIMSELF.........................:)
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
They are not going to play him in next matches while Akmal will be in the team for another ten years to haunt us. Afridi will continue to prefer Rehman (2 wkts in 4 matches @82 so far in WC), Razzaq will play but will only bat for an over or two and bowl a handful of overs and Shoaib will be the water boy. Pakistan think tank is counting on the likes of hafeez, Rehman and Akmal brothers to win the WC.
Pakistan has a history of not giving its greats their dues even when they try to bow out gracefully. Shoaib is no exception.
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
^ Well Kamran's keeping is inconsistent for sure but are you still disappointed with Umar Akmal despite his excellent display with the bat today?
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
The way Riaz bowled today, he should be sent back on home on the same plane as Shehzad. I would take Akhtar over such crap any day.
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
Dropped, banned, lawsuit, banned again, matchwinner, injured, 101.6 KMPH, reverse swing, bollywood, esha deol, genital worts, ball tampering, fights, chucking, steroids, testosterone, sued, injured, comebacks...this will officially end the entertainment in the game...oh no wait, totally forgot about PCB...
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
We will always remember Shoaib Akhtar for silencing the Indian crowd with his two deliveries when he bowled Dravid and Tendulkar.
Re: Shoaib Akhtar to retire after World Cup
**Sachin never scared me but Lara, Gilchrist did: Shoaib **
He has had some of the most memorable on-field battles with Sachin Tendulkar but maverick speedster Shoaib Akhtar claims he was never scared to bowl at the legendary batsman.
Instead, it was dashing Australian keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist and West Indian legend Brian Lara who “scared the hell” out of him during his 14-year international career.
"Yes, that’s true. But that doesn’t mean I have no respect for Sachin. He is a legend and will always remain as one. But Sachin would never scare me. Guys like Gilchrist and Lara would scare the hell out of me," Akhtar, who recently announced his retirement from international cricket after the World Cup told espnstar.com in an interview.
Shoaib who played 46 Tests and 163 ODIs for Pakistan was in awe of Lara and Gilchrist.
**“Gilchrist would simply take me on. Lara was a class apart. In fact, I would be so attracted to his persona that I wouldn’t know where to bowl… His body-language was just too cool!” **
For someone who has been in the news for his off-field activities as well as his on-field exploits feels that had the iconic former Pakistan captain Imran Khan been around during his playing days, things would have been different.
**“He (Imran) was like a father figure. I have missed him badly. If he would have been there, I would have become a better bowler and a better person, may be,” he answered. **
Talking about his regular run-ins with the PCB, Akhtar said that it is the system that made an anti-establishment man.
"The system made me quite an anti-establishment fellow. Ever since I started playing cricket, I was told that, I wasn’t good enough. Whether at the club level or national or international level, I was told I was never good enough. That made me more determined.
“My system refused to swim with the tide. I was exactly the opposite. In spite of this, I have played cricket with my head held high. No one say I have compromised myself when playing for Pakistan. Have you ever seen that I been linked with match fixing?” he shot back.
Akhtar whose career was a start-stop one due to numerous injuries including five major knee surgeries also spoke about playing through pain.
“There have been days when five syringes would be inserted on each of my knees to draw out fluid. I would scream with pain because my knees would be swollen like melons and I would feel that someone was ripping off my thigh muscles. But next day, I would go there and fire the ball at close to 150 kmph or more. That’s Shoaib Akhtar for you.”
“There were two Shoaib Akhtars in me. One that told me to ‘give up cricket’ and the other one that said ‘conquer the odds.’ The second one always prevailed. It’s because of this today I am playing the World Cup.”
He was a touch emotional as he termed his retirement as his second death. “I am surrounded by some sort of emptiness and sadness. For 20 years, I have fought to play cricket. I fought injuries, I fought against so many things. Now I have decided to leave something I loved. It hurts.”
**Having got a lot of fame, money and adulation from the game, the star cricketer wants to give something back to the society. In fact like his idol Imran Khan, Shoaib wants to build a hospital. **
“I want to build a hospital in Islamabad… somewhere in the remote hills where no one can imagine. I will lay the first brick and then God will help me do the rest. My real life begins now, the life away from the spotlight. There are so many things that I want to do now. I want to leave my mark on the common man.”
He makes no bones about the fact the he wants to emulate Imran. “What Imran has done is unimaginable. People call him a cricketer-turned-politician, but I call him a revolutionary, a visionary. When you step in his cancer hospital, you get the feel of what he has done. I want to emulate him.”
Sachin never scared me but Lara, Gilchrist did: Shoaib | Cricbuzz.com](Sachin never scared me but Lara, Gilchrist did: Shoaib | Cricbuzz.com)