Despite his brushes with the authorities, despite his disagreements with team mates and despite the fact that he missed so much cricket throughout his 13 year career, Shoaib Akhtar will always be fondly remembered by the vast majority of cricket lovers.

by Saj Sadiq

18 March 2011

Shoaib Akhtar's announcement of his retirement from international cricket yesterday wasn't just a sad day for Pakistan cricket, but cricket as a whole. Akhtar is a rare breed of cricketer, a fast bowler who consistently bowled over 90mph throughout his career. This breed of cricketer always has a special bond with cricket fans and is a breed of cricketer who sadly in this day and age is almost an "extinct species".

Despite his brushes with the authorities, despite his disagreements with team mates and despite the fact that he missed so much cricket throughout his 13 year career, he will always be fondly remembered by the vast majority of cricket lovers.

Akhtar played through the pain barrier for large parts of his career, yet never gave less than 100% when he was playing for Pakistan. Like any other cricketer, there were good days and bad days, days when you were left scratching your head in disbelief at just how bad he was and other days when Akhtar was in simply irresistible form and terrorised the opposition batsmen.

I first came across the Rawalpindi Express at Headingley in 1997 when he was a member of the highly talented Pakistan "A" squad that toured England. A squad that included a number of cricketers that went onto represent Pakistan at senior level. The name Shoaib Akhtar had been mentioned to me by relatives in Pakistan as a bowler who was highly rated and reported to be extremely fast. I was intrigued so made the journey to Leeds full of excitement and anticipation.

What I saw that day was a taste of things to come from Shoaib throughout his career. He had the Yorkshire batsmen ducking and diving for cover, bowling extremely fast, with aggression and hostility. He particularly enjoyed seeing the batsmen ducking under extremely quick short pitched bowling and raised a satisfactory smile when hitting the helmet of the Yorkshire batsmen which he managed to do on several occasions. Shoaib was very quick that day, as he was throughout his career and the sound of the ball hitting the batsmen's helmet echoed around a relatively empty Headingley stadium. He wasn't the most accurate bowler on the park and he certainly didn't look the fittest, but he had that "X factor" about him, he had something about him, he had an air of unpredictability about him and a certain attitude about him.

He was on and off the field that day, many would say he was on and off the field right the way through his career. He had some problems with his boots and his ankle and he kept the twelfth man occupied that day. He'd bowl a few deliveries, shake his head, remove his boots, limp a little, bowl a few more deliveries, complete his over and walk off. He'd come back on and the cycle of events would continue. Despite the "problems", I liked what I saw that day, it filled me with hope that here was a man who could carry the mantle of the Pakistani bowling attack for years to come.

For one reason or another, Shoaib missed more test matches than he actually played in during his career and that is a fact that disappoints Pakistani fans. Whilst fitness issues couldn’t always be helped, I feel that at times he let himself and his fans down and he may one day look back and realise that the school report on his career would say "Tried hard, but could have done better".

The real Shoaib was a far cry from the individual portrayed by the media. Longstanding KRL team mates of Shoaib and friends of mine shake their head in disbelief at the "monster" the media tried to portray. Sadly some quarters of the media only focussed on the negatives and rarely mentioned the good things that Shoaib brought to the game fo cricket. As fellow KRL fast bowler and good friend of Shoaib's once said to me "Shoaib is a Shahzada (Prince). He will do anything for his friends, family and country and is a great man once you get to know him". Sadly a lot of the people that wrote about him, did not know him at all. Yasir Ali also spoke to me about the time and effort Shoaib put in with young up and coming cricketers, guiding them, helping them with technical issues and generally offering them whatever advice he could

The last time I met Shoaib was again in Leeds as Pakistan took on England in a one day international last year. I was staying with my family at the same hotel as the Pakistan team. On the morning of the match as my family and I enjoyed breakfast, the Pakistan squad one by one entered the breakfast area. Shoaib was one of the first to arrive for breakfast (yes you read that correctly). He was in a jovial mood and sat at a table nearby singing away. He looked over and smiled at my young daughters, as he gave the waiter some specific instructions regarding his coffee. Shoaib never had any breakfast, just his coffee, but was keen to chat, he was singing away and in between the tunes he would chat to his team mates about religion and the importance of family.

My daughters who have their little nicknames for each of the Pakistani players, at this stage were whispering to me (that’s the angry man who was scaring Craig Kieswetter a few days ago), I nodded in approval to them as Shoaib smiled once again. He then took the time to turn his chair and start talking to my family and I. Firstly enquiring who we were and whether we had come to Leeds for the cricket, Shoaib was extremely polite and well mannered and really made an effort. When I told him who I was, his response was an interesting one "Oh ok, so you are Sajid of PakPassion", he stated. I wasn't sure how to take what he had said, as I immediately started thinking of some of the negative posts/articles I had written about him on PakPassion. But alas, he was fine and said "Yes we did an interview when I was with Yasir (Ali)". I verified what he said and we continued to chat, before team mates joined in the conversation after completing their respective breakfasts.

The players waited for the team bus so I took the opportunity to take some pictures of them awaiting the arrival of the team bus. Again Shoaib was extremely friendly and as my family came out of the team hotel, he insisted that they took pictures with him, which I thought was a fantastic gesture.

Shoaib wasn't always everyone's "cup of tea", but he wore his heart on his sleeve and whilst he would never be regarded as a role model, he will leave us all with some great memories.

So I thank you for some wonderful memories Shoaib and I wish you the very best for the future.