Disappointing news to hear that the Pakistan Cricket Board has banned the scarily quick Shoaib Akhtar for five whole years following his recent criticisms of the PCB, after his failure to secure a central contract. While Shoaib has vowed not to go down without a fight and an appeal and possible high court action are on the way, it is a long long ban and it would be quite tragic to think this could be the last we’ll see of the man known as the Rawalpindi Express.
Shoaib’s always been the most volatile of fast bowlers both on the pitch and off, narrowly and perhaps fortuitously escaping a ban for using Nandralone in 2006 and currently on two years probation for whacking team-mate Mohammad Asif with a bat as a warm up for last year’s Twenty20 world cup.
We spurters prefer to remember the phenomenally quick pace man from an India versus Pakistan game at Old Trafford during the 1999 World Cup. Viewed from up in the gods,
Beginning his run up about five yards inside the boundary, long hair flailing and high stepping stride-pattern bringing to mind a thoroughbred racehorse, Shoaib bowled almost the perfect paceman’s spell, hostile, accurate and seriously fast, with the keeper and slips pushed way back to the boundary’s edge and the ball a blur through the air.
Let’s hope we haven’t seen the last of Rawalpindi Express and he isn’t forced to eke out the twilight of his career in the Indian Premier League.
