Sachin vs Shoaib Akhtar
Hurling thunderbolts, some would say, is a typically Shoaib Akhtar thing to do. On the day of the launch of his autobiography, aptly titled ‘Controversially Yours’, some of India’s leading cricketers discovered that retirement hadn’t mellowed the former Pakistan fast bowler’s feisty and confrontational ways.
On Friday, Akhtar again found himself — like so many times in his career — in the midst of a raging row. He was left arguing that snide remarks in his book on the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid had been misconstrued. The book attempts to temper Akhtar’s image as the impudent, hot-headed spoilt brat of Pakistan cricket by portraying his humourous, honest-togoodness sensitive side. Some brash comments about Tendulkar and others, though, have been deliberately left open to interpretation.
At one point in the book, Akhtar writes, “When we got back on the field, I bowled a particularly fast ball which he (Sachin), to my amazement, didn’t even touch. He walked away! That was the first time I saw him walk away from me – that, too, on the slow track at Faisalabad. It got my hunting instincts up.”
Is Shoaib insinuating that Tendulkar was scared of him? Sachin, on his part, refused to offer any shot to this bouncer, saying simply that it was beneath his dignity to respond to such remarks.At another point, Akhtar suggests that Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid lack match-winning capabilities because they are not adept in the art of finishing off a game.
Even as these excerpts from the book went viral on the internet and dominated news channels, a beaming Akhtar was at his affable best at the launch, peppering his side-splitting anecdotes of early strife and dressing room shenanigans with typically earthy Punjabi humour. He was also at pains to insist he had the utmost respect for Tendulkar.
“Tendulkar is the greatest, the greatest to play the game, who am I compared to him? Please read the book before jumping to conclusions. I am talking about a particular match, a particular instance when Tendulkar was suffering from tennis elbow and couldn’t hook or pull. This happens, on certain days they target you, at other times you target them. He had a scare that day. You have to analyse the body language. On certain days you are not comfortable with the ball. That doesn’t mean you are acoward or scared.”
On Tendulkar and Dravid’s lack of match-winning capabilities, Akhtar said, “Dravid was an absolute nightmare in Tests because you couldn’t get him out. But he transformed his game in the ODIs and became a match-winner. Tendulkar too in the past six years has been amazing.”
While cleverly sidestepping these controversies, Akhtar, tongue firmly in cheek, offered some other extremely interesting insights: Match-fixing is rampant (“it happens in every part of the world”), ball-tampering should be legalized, and lack of player unity is the single biggest cause of Pakistan cricket’s downfall. There were times when the patriot burst through too. Asked about the many controversies in the Pakistan dressing room, Akhtar shot back, “At least we confined it to the dressing room. Your Harbhajan slaps on the field!”
Clearly, the inimitable Shoaib is in no mood to go gently.
Hurling thunderbolts, some would say, is a typically Shoaib Akhtar thing to do. On the day of the launch of his autobiography, aptly titled ‘Controversially Yours’, some of India’s leading cricketers discovered that retirement hadn’t mellowed the former Pakistan fast bowler’s feisty and confrontational ways.
On Friday, Akhtar again found himself — like so many times in his career — in the midst of a raging row. He was left arguing that snide remarks in his book on the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid had been misconstrued. The book attempts to temper Akhtar’s image as the impudent, hot-headed spoilt brat of Pakistan cricket by portraying his humourous, honest-togoodness sensitive side. Some brash comments about Tendulkar and others, though, have been deliberately left open to interpretation.
At one point in the book, Akhtar writes, “When we got back on the field, I bowled a particularly fast ball which he (Sachin), to my amazement, didn’t even touch. He walked away! That was the first time I saw him walk away from me – that, too, on the slow track at Faisalabad. It got my hunting instincts up.”
Is Shoaib insinuating that Tendulkar was scared of him? Sachin, on his part, refused to offer any shot to this bouncer, saying simply that it was beneath his dignity to respond to such remarks.At another point, Akhtar suggests that Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid lack match-winning capabilities because they are not adept in the art of finishing off a game.
Even as these excerpts from the book went viral on the internet and dominated news channels, a beaming Akhtar was at his affable best at the launch, peppering his side-splitting anecdotes of early strife and dressing room shenanigans with typically earthy Punjabi humour. He was also at pains to insist he had the utmost respect for Tendulkar.
“Tendulkar is the greatest, the greatest to play the game, who am I compared to him? Please read the book before jumping to conclusions. I am talking about a particular match, a particular instance when Tendulkar was suffering from tennis elbow and couldn’t hook or pull. This happens, on certain days they target you, at other times you target them. He had a scare that day. You have to analyse the body language. On certain days you are not comfortable with the ball. That doesn’t mean you are acoward or scared.”
On Tendulkar and Dravid’s lack of match-winning capabilities, Akhtar said, “Dravid was an absolute nightmare in Tests because you couldn’t get him out. But he transformed his game in the ODIs and became a match-winner. Tendulkar too in the past six years has been amazing.”
While cleverly sidestepping these controversies, Akhtar, tongue firmly in cheek, offered some other extremely interesting insights: Match-fixing is rampant (“it happens in every part of the world”), ball-tampering should be legalized, and lack of player unity is the single biggest cause of Pakistan cricket’s downfall. There were times when the patriot burst through too. Asked about the many controversies in the Pakistan dressing room, Akhtar shot back, “At least we confined it to the dressing room. Your Harbhajan slaps on the field!”
Clearly, the inimitable Shoaib is in no mood to go gently.
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