Shame Shame Afridi: Ball-Biting Ain’t Cricket

Posted on February 1, 2010
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Sports
48 Comments
Total Views: 31965

Adil Najam

Seems like everyone who should have been a role model is becoming a symbol of shame.

The most prominent “aalim” in the country is spreading jahalat. The President of the Republic is shouting obscenities. And our endeared sportsman is biting cricket balls to cheat his way to victory (which still alludes him). And all of this is just what we have been talking about the last three days!

Yes, that is exactly what he did. With Pakistan on a losing streak, having lost the first four one-day games and well on its way to losing the fifth, Shahid Afridi took the cricket ball and actually started biting it, even as the television camera was squarely focused on him doing so. And why would Shahid Afridi indulge in this illegal, and rather disgusting, form of ball tampering?

Here is his response, in his own words:

I shouldn’t have done it. It just happened. I was trying to help my bowlers and win a match, one match… There is no team in the world that doesn’t tamper with the ball. My methods were wrong. I am embarrassed, I shouldn’t have done it. I just wanted to win us a game but this was the wrong way to do it.

Is it just me or is he actually missing the point?

Read the statement again: “There is no team in the world that doesn’t tamper with the ball. My methods were wrong.”

What is he saying? That tampering is OK but his “methods” were wrong? Pray tell us, Sir, what would be the “right” method for tampering a cricket ball!

That Shahid Afridi, a cricketer so loved by the nation including at this blog, should do this makes the pain even more hurtful. Shahid Afridi has been slapped with a punishment of having to miss two 20-20 games. But, as blogger Teeth Maestro (where I first saw this video) argues, that is not enough and the Pakistan Cricket Board should itself look into the matter and provide sterner punishment.

Politics, media, and now sports. Let us please have some repercussions to bad behavior, somewhere!

48 responses to “Shame Shame Afridi: Ball-Biting Ain’t Cricket”

  1. USMAN says:

    HELOOOO guy its not such a big mistake that all pakistanis are blamming AFRIDI,if u look in history several players have done this but but all of them were not treated,such afridi is facing.its a common mistake only his way of doing is different. so dont try to blame him again.he is future of pakistan.

    THANXXXX

  2. Yasmeen says:

    Maybe Afridi should be given a lesson in sportsmanship by Naseem Hameed and Muhammad Abbas.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*