Shoaib Akhtar was my passion to watch cricket - PakPassion

Rana

I had quite a memorable day yesterday, mainly due to the fact that I had a special meeting with a great person. However, the glorious day was dented with the sad news of the announcement of the final stop of the Rawal Pindi Express. I wanted to laugh, smile and be jubilant. Come on, its not often that the pakistan team is giving you such happy memories of a cup and the atmosphere bieng so lively. Sadly, I still cant, or dont want to digest the news.

Watching pakistan games in london can become quite a commitment. You lose precious sleep during holidays or working days, you fake illness at times etc. But God is my witness when I say this, Shoaib Akhtar was my reason to clash with my normal day life. He forced me to watch cricket. His pace, jazba, arrogance, style charisma, passion, celebration, antics off and on the feild were cricket's heart-beat for me.

Dare I say, I wanted to be him. I ran a mile for a run up, pushed my chest (or whatever that was there) out and looked into the Batsmen's eyes and tried ever so hard to thunder bolt the ball in the stumps. Needless to say, there can never be a Shoaib. If there was one man who made me feel proud bragging against my Indian freinds, and when they would say 'wheres your Tendulkar, Sehwag, Dravid, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Dhoni, poni, shoni etce', it was an automatic response of 'We only need Shoaib for that lot', and inside, they knew it.

Shoaib was the man, the legend, the superstar. He revoutionised fast bowling by putting the extreme athletic effort into its atmosphere. He set a standard certainly hard to follow. He showed the world that talent isnt everything, hard work is the key. Shoaib had problems, no doubt, but there is no question to his commitment. He wanted to be the best, he was the best for a while. He had a name, a fear factor echoing in the mind of any traveling batsmen to the barron pitches of pakistan. Those pitches that were known and the 'graveyards of the quickis' now had a demon running through them. He hurt top players, physically and mentally. Kirsten, Ganguly and the great Lara have bowed in pain to him. If pakistani bowlers are the daddys of the reverse swinging yorker, shoiab akhtar is the God father. No toe was safe, no head was protected, no body was strong.

Sadly, the superstars of pakistani cricket are dying out. From Imran, Javed, Wasim, Waqar, Inizimam, Saqlain, Yousuf and now Shoaib. After him, pakistan have only two crowd pullers left. Afridi and Razzaq are also at the eve of their careers. This modern team doesnt have that thing about it. No stars, youngsters are careless about their reputations.

To me shoaib, you will always be the 'special one'. You touched the hearts of pakistan, you won the hearts of the Indian public. You made everybody envy our team. They all wanted somebody like you. Cricket will never be the same without you.

A final clap for the once spectacular, awsome and mind blowing

Shoaib Akhtar

JilaWatan

ok nuff akhtar threads...u cud have easily said this in the akhtar appreciation thread..please .

cricketnut

UM, good on you mate, i hope your not a stalker!

Fireworks11

Understandable.

He was an inspiting bowler, no doubt. He was much more than just a bowler, his charisma, personality and passion made him unique.

Cherish the memories now.

Wasim_Waqar

Disagree with JilaWatan about merging: I like to contribute personal feelings and sometimes they can be lost within threads purely about matches etc.

tahir_dj

very well said... thanks

shehzadd

http://www.indyarocks.com/videos/Sho...Ponting-361215

Rana

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wasim_Waqar

Disagree with JilaWatan about merging: I like to contribute personal feelings and sometimes they can be lost within threads purely about matches etc.

exactly.

Ahmad Shah

he was a show stopper..a great crowd puller
he is gone

very few big names left n his team

after the retirement of younus razaq misbah n afridi (which is likely to happen in couple of years as they all have became OLD enough now)

i cud see a massive decline to cricket in pakistan............legends are not born every day...........we were lucky that we got gifted talent

but not anymore

WHOSE GONNA WATCH PAKISTAN CRICKET TEAM WITHOUT AFRIDI AKHTAR YOUNUS RAZZAQ???................Em sure after there retirement public interest in this game will reduce............no one will watch cricket of a team without any big name