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!
Make way for more national shame!! The News reports that over 2,500 women fall victim to crime in 6 months. The Aurat foundation reports 797 cases of female trafficking, 374 cases of sexual abuse, 24 of attempted murders, 359 murders, 21 of acid burning, 195 of forced-suicide, 21 of killing threats, 130 of torture, 14 of habeas corpus, 126 of honour killing, 12 of forced-Marriage, 121 of suicide attempts, nice of burning alive, 106 of beating, seven of burying alive, six each of sexual harassment and Karokari, 84 of domestic torture, 5 of incest rape, and three of underage marriages. Aparently violence against women in Pakistan have reached epic proportions.
Please be kind. His was an act of desperation to make his team win after the string of losses. Wrong action in desperation, but not the same as the lies of the Jahil Aalim or the acts of our Mr. 10%.
Allah Wasaya, your second point is a good one, but by the time the spectator runs into the field the Pakistan skipper had already lost all moral authority with his ball-biting.
And, in all fairness, Afridi is actually not one of the religion brigade in the team, so we cannot blame this one on the mullahs! (Even they have much more to answer for).
I hate to point this out but where the heck does all that religiosity of our cricketers go while comitting dishonesty like this, I guess its only limited to saying InshaAllah, MashaAllah and Alhamdolillah repeatedly when handed a mic. It is an utter lack of professionalism when knowing fully well that there are about two dozen cameras (more than all the humans on the field) to cover each and every move of the players, one would do such an act.
I would also question the leadership qualities of our skipper, when one of his players is tackeled on the ground by a spectator. Why did he not lead the team off the field right there and then in protest. Ricky Ponting himself said that he would’ve walked off with his team had one of his players brought down. This would’ve been a good chance to show the Aussies how it feels to be on the receiving end of humiliation
wow. Just cannot believe this. How can he be so so very stupid. What was he thinking!