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!
I hate to remind our glorious past but if you remember in 1995 tour of England by Pakistan . the two WWs Waqar and Wasim were targeted by the British Tabloids that they do ball tampering when they actually did’nt. They were closely watched by the TV cameras during those matches. The two WWs ripped the British Batting line apart in test and one day. Now we are at the bottom where we are doing this. It is a moment of shame for all the Pakistani bowlers such as Imran , Sarfaraz, Wasim , Waqar, and others
“Seems like everyone who should have been a role model is becoming a symbol of shame”.
I think players of a game are just “entertainers” not a role model in any way.You know,amerika is still mourning the loss of a role model named “Tiger”.
Shahid Khan is a true Paky hero like Qadeer Khan: Both of the ‘Khans’ claimed to have done some cheating in the national cause and apologized to the nation afterwords when caught at it.
“Huey tum dost jiske dushman uska aasmaan kion ho”
I always enjoy Zahoor’s cartoons in The Daily Times. Here is one on Afridi
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=201022\s tory_2-2-2010_pg3_8
I know what Afridi did is bad, but the law should be for every one English player were doing a similer thing in a recent match, non of them was banned
http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/443 218.html?cmp=viral