Shoaib Akhter Biography
Shoaib Akhtar is a former professional cricketer who played testes and
One Day International matches for the Pakistan national team in ICC organized
events. He has been dubbed as The Rawalpindi Express after the place where he
was born and he is arguably the fastest bowler the world of cricket has ever
seen, easily clocking 150 km/hour on many occasions. He became the first man to
bowl a delivery over 100 miles/hour or 161.3 km/hour, which is the fastest
delivery ever bowled in the history of cricket against England. Moreover, not
only did he achieve a speed of 100 miles/hour on his delivery, he achieved it
twice during one single match and that is something that makes him very unique
in the world of fast bowlers. His prowess lay in being able to bowl fast and
precise Yorkers as well as quick bouncers and these abilities made him one of
the greatest as well as most feared bowlers of all time, the likes of which had
not been seen in international cricket since the times of Michael Holding, Joel
Garner, Jeff Thompson, Dennis Lillie, Malcolm Marshall and the likes – players
who depended on raw pace to pick up wickets.
However, Shoaib Akhtar was
also a very controversial figure and it followed him wherever he went. It has
been said that he was very selfish and not a team man. The Pakistan team
management once sent him home from Australia in the middle of a series because
of an alleged poor behavior on his part. In 2006, he was perhaps involved in
the biggest controversy when WADA found Shoaib Akhtar guilty
of taking performance enhancing drugs and the ICC banned him from playing
cricket. This ban was however lifted and he returned to the Pakistan national
side the following year and almost immediately, got himself banned by the
Pakistan Cricket Board or the PCB for fighting with team mate and fellow
opening bowler Mohammad Asif during a training session.
He was selected to play for the Kolkata Knight Riders for
the inaugural IPL but injuries blighted his season and he played only a handful
of matches. Akhtar was so injury prone that he only managed to play a total of
46 tests and 163 One Day Internationals in his 12 year international career, taking
a total of 425 wickets in all. Shoaib Akhtar, in spite of all his short comings,
is truly a legend of the game and no matter what happens, cricket will always
remember this flamboyant star.
No comments:
Post a Comment