Match Point
Afridi is our good luck charm!

Afridi is our good luck charm!

The result of the second ODI notwithstanding, I was glad to see Afridi do well with the bat.

Dr Amyn Malyk November 16, 2011

Shahid Khan Afridi, the captain, who went into temporary retirement sometime ago after a fallout with the board and the coach, has had an immediate impact on team performance.

In the first ODI he played after coming back, he was named Man of the Match for his brilliant bowling and in the second ODI against Sri Lanka he might have led Pakistan to victory with the bat had he not been run out. Each shot he played leaving the field were good cricketing shots suited to the limited overs game. But alas, luck didn't favour the brave in this instance. The direct hit by the Sri Lankan captain to run out Afridi all but sealed the fate of the match. This was the second time Sri Lanka took the match from a man who could have won the match single handed for Pakistan as Razzaq, was also run out.

The result of the second ODI notwithstanding, I was glad to see Afridi do well with the bat. He has been doing a great job bowling lately, including being the highest wicket taker in the World Cup. But, his stock had fallen as a batter. Last time he crossed the three figure mark was more than a year ago. He would come in, slog around and get out. But this time he looked in control and determined to play well - even though he just made 29.

Afridi’s presence on the team adds much needed aggression and also provides the cushion of an extra bowling option. Actually, he is a frontline bowler and a wicket-taker - if he bats this sensibly all the time, Pakistan could benefit greatly. But, then he would not be the mercurial, crowd pleasing cricketer he is.

Pakistan's One Day International team is as much Shahid Afridi’s as it is Misbahul Haq’s. Actually, Misbah inherited a unit that gelled well under Afridi’s leadership and fortunately for him, the team stayed together even when the captain went into retirement. Afridi's expressive and instinctive style was replaced by Haq's impassive and calm and the team continued on as if nothing had changed.

Afridi is Pakistan’s good luck charm. He led us to the semifinal of the World Cup 2011 against all odds and is still the best choice to lead Pakistan cricket in the limited overs format (both ODI and T20) as we prepare for the next World Cup given that Misbah is on the wrong side of 30.

Should Afridi be given the captaincy again is a question for another time - for now, I am just happy to see him wearing the green shirt.

A man who should have been cherished and treated as a hero was, like many others before him, was unceremoniously removed and forced into retirement by an incompetent board that was looking after the interest of Pakistan cricket. I hope the current board realizes what Afridi brings to the table and treats him well.

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WRITTEN BY:
Dr Amyn Malyk The author is a PhD student at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. He is a former Fulbright Scholar who likes to write. He tweets as @amynmalik

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

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COMMENTS (25)

Afridi's Angel | 12 years ago | Reply Shahid Afridi has been playing marvelously and he is truly a beautiful blessing to the team, as his focus is solely on cricket and he does not have the stress/tension of the PCB to deal with. The team has been performing well and all players have been a blessing to the team because they are united now and are to be showing their strengths to their opponents :)

Sana Mushtaq | 12 years ago | Reply @ saira and taimoor, you may call it absurd, but Misbah is not a match winning player. In the recent series, if you've been watching, he could not perform fully. Being serene and defensive is not good always, he has been able to win the series totally due to the team. He has not been able to score his first ever century in ODI's, what else can you imagine. You can never forget the lame shot(reverse sweep)he played in the first ever t20 world cup against india. And you can also never deny the fact that the team was gelled by Shahid Afridi and was then handed over to him. Beherhaal i really hope things go better for the team.

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Cynical | 12 years ago | Reply In our heroes we seek and find our fulfulment of many dreams and desires. It also follows that finally our choice of heroes reflect much about us and the society we live in. It's not surprising that a society such as ours, find a hero in a cricketer, who time and again has displayed his inclination to act against the spirit of the game.We put no premium on principles when it colmes to achieve results.Result justifies the means. But to Afridi fans (and many other type of fans in the sub continent) cricket is only about scoring a few runs and taking a few wickets. This is how it pans out in the sub continent (India,bangladesh,sri lanka) because we learnd the techniques of the game, rarely picked the spirit with which to play it.To an Englishman,an Australian, a Newzelander, a South African, an West Indian it's a way of life and very much a part of their culture. That's why we hero worship chest-thumping, big mouth, cheeky types of sportsmen at the cost of gentleman(succesful as well) cricketers like Yunus Khan,Misbah Ul Haq,Md Hafeez etc.

Afridi's Angel | 12 years ago | Reply Say what you want about Shahid Afridi---- He is too busy working on his goals of improving his abilities to being the best crickter he can possibly be. He does not care about people who criticise him. One thing is for sure, Shahid Afridi brings such excitement to the cricket field :)

hanan mehmood | 12 years ago | Reply shahid afridi is a great capton...shaid afridi support our pakistan team he did 5 wickets in match of sirilanka. he was also palying batting well...

Taimoor | 12 years ago | Reply @Sana Mushtaq: Yes that was awful comment, Misbah is leading pretty much the same group of guys Afridi was. Misbah is a winner he knows when to keep his mouth shut and play and when things need to be done. People are bitter over him because he apparently lost the game for us. Blame it our openers who couldn't get anything going, or anyone else for that matter, especially Afridi who looked like a lumberjack. We were lucky to get to the Semis and should be happy with it. I hope Misbah can lead the team for however long he can, he is the only hope.

Ahmad Hammad | 12 years ago | Reply We cannot forget the Semi Final in India. It was captained by our charming hero Shahid Afridi whose team couldn't win. It was weird... Let's have a look at the tale of another semi final which shall give a clue to the question as to why Shahid Afridi had to lose the semi final in March this year... Kindly go through the article: http://www.ahmadhammad.com/articles/vinod-kambli-on-indian-involvement-in-match-fixing

Saira | 12 years ago | Reply @Sana Mushtaq: What a pathetic comment!

Sana Mushtaq | 12 years ago | Reply Listen all those who criticize Afridi.. During the worldcup, you people were among those who kept on saying that he can even bring the woldcup.. Misbah's doing well enough but the age-factor won't take him further.. And fortunately, Misbah is leading a team of focused, and wise guys unlike Shahid Afridi who was given a bunch of non-serious players along with some good ones to lead.. No one even bothers about cricket without Shahid Afridi.. Ktne ache cricketers ne match-fixng ki, bt we always boast about their 'cricketing abilities', and heres Shahid Afridi, who even apologizes for losing.. Come on people, get a life!!! N stop being a "Thaali Ka Bengan"..

User | 12 years ago | Reply Test matches r not 4 hard hitting afridi .razzak its 4 ppl like misbah who also r very slow in t20s nd odis

User | 12 years ago | Reply Zaid hasan misbah ne wc semi final haraya tha sachin ko chance (dropped) b diya aur slow bating karke india ko jitne me help kiya Phir to wo jarur captain ke layak hai

amir | 12 years ago | Reply This is a lame article. Afridi is not our good luck charm by any means. Pakistan is doing really good in all the tests without afridi. Please stop brown nosing for Mr. Me Me and Me Afridi.

Zaid Hassan | 12 years ago | Reply @ mohsin shekhani he was made the captain in the england tour from where he ran away just after playing a ridiculous shot of the first ball and eventually pakistan losing that test. Instead of being man enough to complete that series he ran away just after playin one test. What a brave leader. he knew he wasnt good enough. Should not have accepted it in the first place and he still maintains he ran away because he was not good enough before u bring in any spot fixing emotional story. Pakistan had one of the most balanced team in World cup, thats why they reached semi final of that world cup. Pakistan was confirmed Quarter final spot and they only won against 8th ranked team WI in quarter final. so it wasnt a very big achievement as people make it out. Afridi didnt win all the games himself. He played a ridiculous shot against Australia in wc which we wud have lost if umar akmal had not played a responsible inning. Victory against sl in wc was because of misbah and younis big partnership...so Stop glorifying that cheat for no reason

Rizvi | 12 years ago | Reply Inshallah Afridi will play for 5-6 more years. He can bring 1000s of records on the way. For one he can become the highest wicket taker in ODIs. He has around 320 wickets now, and he is getting 2/odi these days, so in next 2-3 years he can easily get 500 wickets :))

ebadat | 12 years ago | Reply afridi is the rokstar in the world i thing his prov

ashok sai | 12 years ago | Reply Unwarranted hype on Afridi, in my opinion it s 'Hafeez' who is performing exceptionally well with both the bat and ball, he has improved as opener and also chips in with few quick overs regularly. Its Hafeez who brings the charm, not any ball lovers.

Mohsin Shekhani | 12 years ago | Reply @Zaid Hassan: And no wonder we tend to forget really easily that people forget in what circumstances he was made the captain and gelled the team together and reached the semi-finals. why do we always overshadows someones potenetial with its failures or faults.

Hassan | 12 years ago | Reply The above commentators are using the word 'cheat' as freely as people need to pee in the winters. Have they given a thought to the facts that this 'cheat' of theirs has a totally untarnished reputation celebrated even by infamous match fixers like Mazhar Majeed. That this "cheat" never gave in to that sort of illegal and unpatriotic monetary charms atleast deserves credit for that? Why should I, for one, put him on a higher moral padestal than the more talented Wasim Akram, who has been allegedly involved in match/spot fixing numerous times? Whatever his follies, Afridi did aplogize even for the minor instances like ball tempering, rubbing the pitch with his shoes etc. And trust me, these really are minor instances compared to the ones we already know about, thanks to The News of The World!

Cynical | 12 years ago | Reply @Zaid Hassan Spot on. We not only love cheats, we put them on a pedestal for hero worshiping, as the author atempts and then we complain why the world doesn't respect us.

Abu Bakr | 12 years ago | Reply Your good luck charm mistakes cricket balls from apples sometimes, and retired from the most important form of cricket because he lost a series as a captain.

Zaid Hassan | 12 years ago | Reply A man who tampered with the ball and pitch and who is proven cheat.....someone who retires every other series when his idiotic demands are not met...shud b treated as a hero surely

Zaid Hassan | 12 years ago | Reply A man who tampered with the ball and with the pitch and is a proven cheat....surely a great good luck charm to have...no wonder we love cheats!!

Parvez | 12 years ago | Reply Afridi is entertaining and good for our cricket. But we must learn that every one has ' his time ' and then must move on and make way for somebody probably better. This was proved in the case of little Amir, until he and whoever messed it all up.

Shahid | 12 years ago | Reply Dude, if he really is Pakistan team's good luck charm, why did we lose the World Cup semi-final against India? Cricket is a team sport. Giving too much credit to one man is harmful. Afridi is a selfish man too. As soon as the new Chairman of PCB was appointed, Afridi went to his office pleading his return to the team. Don't make him to be a hero. People like you are the reason Afridi is so full of himself. It is agreed that the board is utterly and completely corrupt. But instead of retiring like a sissy, he should have taken the board to court and should have dealt with them in a mature way and should have taken a stance. The system right now is the same, just the face (chairman) has changed. What has Afridi done to change the system? He was in a very able position to do it. Unfortunately, he is now again part of the same system which has taken Pakistan cricket to great lows. The system will remain the same and this cycle will be repeated continuously. No change will come like this. Disappointing.

Aswad | 12 years ago | Reply 100% Agreed!! Misbah is also doing good , but the same old problem he is too slow in batting ...In 2nd ODI it was the Umar Akmal who was pushing him to take singles , rotating the strike and tried his super best to get back the strike from Captain Slow ..Afridi brings the aggression a captain needs !!! We Love Afridi and other Heroes, as you mentioned our senior players who are appreciated at international level and are always disgraced at the end of their carrier but our lunatic PCB. But Long way to go for Afridi Inshallah !!

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