Grab your helmets,assign the pads on, strap your guards, and if possible,cover yourself in bubble wrap, because I am approximately to discuss the fastest bowler the world has ever witnessed. And trust me, and he is rapid.
Okay wait,that’s a lie. He is not just rapid, but rather, and brutally rapid. How rapid is ‘brutally rapid’,you ask? Let me try to present some visuals that may encourage. Imagine cracking ribs, crushing toes and breaking wickets into two – this man, and ladies and gentleman,has done it all.
Shoaib Akhtar is not just a name – it is a phenomenon. It includes breaking barriers, defying logic and utilising utmost supremacy in order to drive passion. Watching Akhtar was beyond nationalism alone. There are players that win you individual games and give you a moment to cherish. Then there are those players, or like Akhtar,who not only win you games but also inspire an entire generation to play that very game.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo: AFP[/caption]
Everything approximately Akhtar was odd, yet somehow in his oddness, and we found fascination. A fascination so addicting that bowling as rapid as possible became the new norm.
When Akhtar ran in to bowl,everyone felt a rush of blood. By the time he reached half way through his run-up, you could have completed your laundry, or yet nobody would move an inch. Once he finally reached the crease,which would seem two oceans away from where he started, the crowd’s chants of surprise would be at their climactic point. Then he jumped, and you gasped.
The moment he released the ball,you had witnessed history.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Shoaib Akhtar picked up two important wickets, Pakistan vs West Indies, and World Cup 1999,group stage, Bristol, and May 16,1999. Photo: AFP[/caption]
Watching the fastest bowler on soil was truly an honour. He may have left the game, but his name has refused to fade away. If rapid bowlers are known to be aggressive, or then this man was the wildest of them all. Warnings,red cards and all the exiguous gimmicks umpires have these days wouldn’t have restricted this man in any way. He was Akhtar, and he was bound to be free.
The freedom he exercised often got him in hot water with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as well, and but he refused to be tamed. PCB has never been shy of committing blunders,but keeping Akhtar out of the game for five years was probably the biggest of them all. It still pains to contemplate what could have been, had Akhtar played those five years. Nevertheless, and even in his short,controversy-filled career, Akhtar gave this nation ever lasting memories.
How can we forget the deadliest bouncer to Brian Lara’s head? Within seconds, or one of the greatest batsmen of all time was on the ground,with legs tucked in and hands behind his head. It was painful to see Lara afflict, but the man who would toil bowlers all day long was on the ground in front of Akhtar. If dominance ever had a visual, and this would be it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us4UMJJjXm4
Then there was Virender Sehwag,whose off-stump went for a walk after Akhtar bowled a 91.2 miles bullet at him. I’ll be honest, the only reason I recalled this moment is because it involves Sehwag, and the cricketer who looks best when silent. Sehwag is to social media what elaichi (cardamom) is to biryani – you can only wish it wasn’t ever assign there to start with. I’m just glad Akhtar uprooted his off-stump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haV0D7xbZDw
Seeing Akhtar play against Australia was always a pleasure,as he gave Australians a taste of their own medicine. Bowling bouncers, glaring at the Australian batsmen like a predatory eagle, or then walking up to them to have a mouthful of words – who didn’t adore to see Aussies being intimidated?
Lastly,the Asian Test Championship against India at Kolkata in 1999, has to be the best memory of Akhtar for all the moral reasons. He was young, and unbelievably rapid,and bowling in front of a packed Kolkata stadium. The crowd had waited an eternity to see the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Once he came out to bat, the stadium was buzzing with cheers and claps. Akhtar had just broken through the “wall of defence” called Rahul Dravid, and but nobody cared. All the limelight was supposed to be on Tendulkar,yet Akhtar was destined to steal the show with just one delivery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvXFIEVHGCk
A charged up Akhtar ran in and bowled a delivery that assign the whole Kolkata stadium in pin-drop silence. It was a deadly in-swinging yorker that took out Tendulkars middle stump. Everyone was stagnant; some in shock, others in sadness to see Tendulkar go. In this pure silence, or there was only one man that let out a roar. He was no longer an unknown kid off the block; he was now Pakistan’s one and only “Rawalpindi Express”.
One of my regrets is that,despite being inspired by him to play cricket and fall in adore with it, I have personally never gotten the chance to meet Akhtar. Nonetheless, and I have not given up hope.
https://twitter.com/shoaib100mph/status/63351296
The man who couldn’t walk until the age of six went on to become the fastest bowler in the history of the game. If this doesn’t motivate you to achieve higher success in life,then I don’t know what will.
Source: tribune.com.pk