Does Shahid Afridi deserve all the fame he got?

[UN talkz]

He has been a superstar.... Some believe he is and some don't...
He has got millions of fans maybe even a billion... Who can literally lay down their lives for him and some who hate him more than anything else, although the no. differs massively.

After an international cricket career that was 19 years long, Afridi's career stats still don't show anything by which he could be regarded as ATG or even greatest from his country, the fact that many people think Razzaq was better than him.

At best Afridi can be regarded as T20 legend or maybe even ATG T20 player, which i believe he is. Afridi got more chances than anybody else ever got, failures after failures but still the PCT persisted with him.

Every team or captain would want a player like Afridi but given he performs consistently, which unfortunately never was the case.

He has got the most passionate fans in the world who are mad about him, and other guys despite being better than him and performing better than him never got such fame. Maybe thats what you call X-Factor.......

There will be guys saying he was born in wrong generation and was made for T20 cricket.... But if a player is an ATG T20 player..... Does that actually mean he was a great cricketer.

The question that i am asking is that despite disappointing a hundred times and performing once in a blue moon.... Does this guy actually deserve all the fame he got, keeping in mind what he achieved in his 20 year long career....

For me he was a great talent but he never understood or realised that he was such talented

 

[Smbhayi]

but he's also been dropped from team many time too and his alternatives is not good as him.

BTW what you mean by deserve?

 

[hadi123]

Yes he does. He won us a lot of games and he was a brilliant bowler his peak years. Also, everyone can agree he was a one of kind player in the excitement he created every time he came out to bat. When his bowling was at his best he was a world class leg spinner at a time where leg spin was dying. Was one of the top wicket takers in the 2011 World Cup and his batting could always change the game in a matter of overs

 

[amax]

We like it or not Afridi is peoples man , average Joe casual Pakistani fan with not much knowledge about of game love Afridi.

 

[UN talkz]

but he's also been dropped from team many time too and his alternatives is not good as him.

BTW what you mean by deserve?

From cricketing perspective..... Not taking social service and all that into account

 

[Mainul]

Yes he does. He won us a lot of games and he was a brilliant bowler his peak years. Also, everyone can agree he was a one of kind player in the excitement he created every time he came out to bat. When his bowling was at his best he was a world class leg spinner at a time where leg spin was dying. Was one of the top wicket takers in the 2011 World Cup and his batting could always change the game in a matter of overs

How many matches he made Pakistan win against top teams like India, Australia, England, South Africa, Srilanka?

 

[idrizzy]

The reason why he deserves the fame is because of his style of batting and records he broke. Yes, they'd be a rarity BUT when they came, in an era of SR of 75 being 'normal', he'd score at a SR of 200+ which was unheard of.

An explosive batsman and no one is equal to him in the Pakistan team. A shame that he wasn't consistent at all.

 

[Markhor]

Wouldn't have played as many matches for any other country.

 

[Leo23]

yes he does. a superstar.

 

[Leo23]

Wouldn't have played as many matches for any other country.

that's a myth

he would have played lots of odis for any country. look at how vital someone like maxwell is for australia

in fact other teams would have utilized him better in odis and t20s. would definitely have played 300 odis for any country.

certainly a very good limited overs all rounder

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

No he was mediocre player. Hardly made an average significant contribution in 50 matches out of the ~500 he played. Thats like performing in 1 out of 10 matches. Not good enough for me.

As [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION] said wouldn't have played as many matches for any other country (may be for Afghanistan) and there are certain factors why he played so long for Pakistan.

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

Undisputed 'NO'.

 

[Leo23]

No he was mediocre player. Hardly made an average significant contribution in 50 matches out of the ~500 he played. Thats like performing in 1 out of 10 matches. Not good enough for me.

As [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION] said wouldn't have played as many matches for any other country (may be for Afghanistan) and there are certain factors why he played so long for Pakistan.

poor logic

ponting has 30 hundreds and 82 fifties in 365 innings so he has failed in 70% of the matches that he has played so he must be a mediocre player

apart from bradman perhaps every in history has failed more than he has succeeded

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

As far as fame is concerned, the less said about Pakistanis in this perspective the better. It might hurt people but we as a nation have our priorities elsewhere and one of the reason where we are standing now as a country and our condition in all aspects of life . I bet Fawad Khan would have been a hero here if he had some cricketing skills, with backing from some quarters and a bhaijaan bhaijaan attitude coming on media for every little thing.

PCB is no different. Just look at there golden boy treatment for grooming the next captain: Salman Butt, Umar Amin, Imad Wasim and if anyone of you followed Salman's domestic career he had some dodgy performances in domestic as captain too for NBP but PCB pursued with him despite knowing that. Hard to figure out one of the reason was he was 'educated' , had good looks and could speak English. So this is the primary ingredients of a good captain? Masha Allah!

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

poor logic

ponting has 30 hundreds and 82 fifties in 365 innings so he has failed in 70% of the matches that he has played so he must be a mediocre player

apart from bradman perhaps every in history has failed more than he has succeeded

read carefully I wrote average significant contribution. Ponting's average significant contribution >> Afridi's. Cricket is a team game and Ponting's 40s even sometime makes a contribution for his team to win while Afridi's 0 (1) dont.

 

[Leo23]

read carefully I wrote average significant contribution. Ponting's average significant contribution >> Afridi's. Cricketing is a team game and Ponting's 40s even sometime makes a contribution for his team to win while Afridi's 0 (1) dont.

afridi is an all rounder

he contributes a lot

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

afridi is an all rounder

he contributes a lot

395 wickets in 398 matches at an avg of 35 and economy of 4.6 is a hardly a decent contribution with the ball.

 

[Leo23]

395 wickets in 398 matches at an avg of 35 and economy of 4.6 is a hardly a decent contribution with the ball.

combined with a batting average of 23 at a strike rate of 110+

high impact all rounder in limited overs

 

[Ahmad Shah]

no he does not
i remember countless times he thrown his wicket as if its worthless
if u exclude minnows
i can count on my fingers how many matches he won for Pakistan
still i would be left with ample number of fingers to enjoy my diner

biggest overrated player of all time
thank God he is gone now

 

[coy0607]

few cricketers in the history of cricket have brought the kind of entertainment value that Afridi has.

He absolutely deserves the fame and popularity he has, otherwise he wouldn't have it

 

[Hadi Rizvi]

no he does not
i remember countless times he thrown his wicket as if its a worthless piece of s***
if u exclude minnows
i can count on my fingers how many matches he won for Pakistan
still i would be left with ample number of fingers to enjoy my diner

biggest overrated player of all time
thank God he is gone now

^^Afridi hater alert

Afridi is an anomaly. He's the x in Mathematics. He's the cricketer that statistics-dependent gurus/analysts hate.

He can score 0(1) and 100(42) on the same pitch, against the same opposition, in the same week on
2 separate days.

IMO, Afridi was an extraordinary all-rounder from 2007-2014. These years were his true peak wherein his best and most memorable performances lie. He was Man of the Tournament for T20 WC 2007 and a major contributing factor to Pakistan lifting the T20 WC 2009. His highs had been unreachable for many years e.g Best bowling figures, Best MOM-matches ratio, Fastest 50/100, Most 50's and 5 wicket hauls in a match etc etc while his lows have been bottomless e.g ball-tampering, fall-outs with board and senior players, 3 separate retirements etc etc.

Literally everything else lies in between which is why statistics portray him as a very mediocre cricketer.
This is so not true.

The things certain about Afridi were:
1) He had potential to be among the best batsman/bowler/fielder in the world
2) He was extremely inconsistent in his performances
3) He could win you matches single-handedly
4) His X-factor was unbelievably high due to his once-in-a-blue-moon extraordinary performances

We count many disappointments with Afridi because the expectations were really high all the time as a result of his past performances. I am and always will be a fan of Afridi because of his contributions to Pakistan Cricket during 2007-2014 when we had a superstar in our XI who could do anything at all with the bat, with the ball or in the field.

 

[Ahmad Shah]

the points u highlighted
1) he can score 0 and can hit 100(42)

fine
would u mind telling me how many times he did that??
in his 400 odis he hit only 6 century so i dismiss this point
chances of hitting him a century are as rare as ajit agarkar scoring another ton the way he did at lords

your second point
HE HAD POTENTIAL

listen sir to hell with such potential which he fail to show up even after 400 odis

average of 23 is disastrous batting average
less wickets and high number of matches and average 35 is not even half decent bowling


i hate such UNRELIABLE players
we need solid players like inzi younus yousaf not a unreliable player like him

 

[Ahmad Shah]

his defence was weakest than the tailender
the reason he always use to attack not because he was foolish or fearless but because he had worst batting technique and he was unable to defend

i hardly remember ten occasion maximum where he won single handedly a match
but i remember more than 100 occasions where he thrown his wicket as if it is a worthless thing

 

[Markhor]

that's a myth

he would have played lots of odis for any country. look at how vital someone like maxwell is for australia

in fact other teams would have utilized him better in odis and t20s. would definitely have played 300 odis for any country.

certainly a very good limited overs all rounder

Yes I'm sure other countries would've been DESPERATE for a guy who since the 2011 World Cup averaged a measly 22 with the bat and 38 with the ball in ODIs against non-minnows. He lost more matches than he won with his once in a blue moon performances. Younger ARs were kept out of the team because Forever 16 clung onto his career far too long.

Maxwell is a proper power hitter whereas Afridi was just a blind slogger for whom even #7 was too high a batting position. Razzaq was always the cleaner hitter of the two. Countless times we needed Afridi to play a sensible knock but this selfish coward would hole out to midwicket or mid-on with regularity. Everyone saw how his reflexes were fading in his final few years, was failing to judge length, how he struggled against short pitched bowling and to even put away full tosses yet his fanclub argue he wasn't utilised properly and should've been opening !

His fanclub excused his batting failures saying he was a bowling AR but his bowling was nothing to write home about either in the latter part of his career. A professional team wouldn't have tolerated a blatant cheat either, this genius danced on a pitch and chewed on a ball on worldwide television thinking he wouldn't get caught yet we appointed this guy captain several times. Nor would they tolerate his "conditional retirements".

Worst of all was Afridi's cowardice which was exposed when he ran like a hare halfway through an overseas tour in 2010 and quit the captaincy. Why take the Test captaincy if you didn't think you were suited for Test cricket ? Then he had the gall to say he saw the spot-fixing scandal coming yet he never opened his mouth until after NOTW exposed it !

The adulation Afridi receives from large sections of the Pakistan public is a reflection of the awaam and why our cricket never realised its full potential - idolising a man who was impulsive, all flash and PR but lacking in substance and refusing to work hard, instead coasting on mythical notions of "matchwinning talent".

 

[Major]

The adulation Afridi receives from large sections of the Pakistan public is a reflection of the awaam and why our cricket never realised its full potential - idolising a man who was impulsive, all flash and PR but lacking in substance and refusing to work hard, instead coasting on mythical notions of "matchwinning talent".

+1.

it reflects our politics aswell

 

[shaz619]

Yes I'm sure other countries would've been DESPERATE for a guy who since the 2011 World Cup averaged a measly 22 with the bat and 38 with the ball in ODIs against non-minnows. He lost more matches than he won with his once in a blue moon performances. Younger ARs were kept out of the team because Forever 16 clung onto his career far too long.

Maxwell is a proper power hitter whereas Afridi was just a blind slogger for whom even #7 was too high a batting position. Razzaq was always the cleaner hitter of the two. Countless times we needed Afridi to play a sensible knock but this selfish coward would hole out to midwicket or mid-on with regularity. Everyone saw how his reflexes were fading in his final few years, was failing to judge length, how he struggled against short pitched bowling and to even put away full tosses yet his fanclub argue he wasn't utilised properly and should've been opening !

His fanclub excused his batting failures saying he was a bowling AR but his bowling was nothing to write home about either in the latter part of his career. A professional team wouldn't have tolerated a blatant cheat either, this genius danced on a pitch and chewed on a ball on worldwide television thinking he wouldn't get caught yet we appointed this guy captain several times. Nor would they tolerate his "conditional retirements".

Worst of all was Afridi's cowardice which was exposed when he ran like a hare halfway through an overseas tour in 2010 and quit the captaincy. Why take the Test captaincy if you didn't think you were suited for Test cricket ? Then he had the gall to say he saw the spot-fixing scandal coming yet he never opened his mouth until after NOTW exposed it !

The adulation Afridi receives from large sections of the Pakistan public is a reflection of the awaam and why our cricket never realised its full potential - idolising a man who was impulsive, all flash and PR but lacking in substance and refusing to work hard, instead coasting on mythical notions of "matchwinning talent".

Maxwell didn't make his debut in 1996 though, the game has changed drastically since then.

Anyhow Afridi remains one of the greatest T20 players in history and helped his country win its first ICC trophy since 1992 when it came to his heroics in the 2009 World T20, had a good tournament in the 2007 World T20 and did well in the 2011 WC to. Beyond that has played some memorable innings in both formats. Overall his figures in the limited forms are not too bad but obviously he has never fulfilled his potential, we should judge his career more objectively and look at the good / bad ; the main negative is his influence which inspired a generation of hacks but at the same time he was a hero for many of his people, he's a product of their adulation as well. But no doubt he remains a questionable character and the most enigmatic man to wear the green.

Under Woolmer I felt Afridi's batting was beginning to improve, he had a way with him like many others; I miss bob, the greatest coach ever

 

[Markhor]

Maxwell didn't make his debut in 1996 though, the game has changed drastically since then.

Anyhow Afridi remains one of the greatest T20 players in history and helped his country win its first ICC trophy since 1992 when it came to his heroics in the 2009 World T20, had a good tournament in the 2007 World T20 and did well in the 2011 WC to. Beyond that has played some memorable innings in both formats. Overall his figures in the limited forms are not too bad but obviously he has never fulfilled his potential, we should judge his career more objectively and look at the good / bad ; the main negative is his influence which inspired a generation of hacks but at the same time he was a hero for many of his people, he's a product of their adulation as well. But no doubt he remains a questionable character and the most enigmatic man to wear the green.

Under Woolmer I felt Afridi's batting was beginning to improve, he had a way with him like many others; I miss bob, the greatest coach ever

I agree Afridi had made decent contributions in T20s, so why didn't stick to that format instead of clinging onto his ODI career for 4 years too many ? Once again an example of Afridi putting personal ego over the interests of his team.

The fact he was actually reconsidering his retirement after that shambolic WT20 display last year tells you everything about him.

He was a poor judge of talent as we saw through his selections of Khurrum Manzoor and Rifatullah Mohmand, and his dropping of Aamer Yamin after 1 T20. He was also an inept tactician as we saw when he played 4 pacers on a Kolkata turner and his field placings in that tournament.

 

[shaz619]

I agree Afridi had made decent contributions in T20s, so why didn't stick to that format instead of clinging onto his ODI career for 4 years too many ? Once again an example of Afridi putting personal ego over the interests of his team.

The fact he was actually reconsidering his retirement after that shambolic WT20 display last year tells you everything about him.

He was a poor judge of talent as we saw through his selections of Khurrum Manzoor and Rifatullah Mohmand, and his dropping of Aamer Yamin after 1 T20. He was also an inept tactician as we saw when he played 4 pacers on a Kolkata turner and his field placings in that tournament.

I know that things work in a unique fashion in Pakistan but the PCB also have to take accountability for his selection regardless of whether or not it was on merit. Yeah, people often advocated Afridi as Captain as if he would be a big upgrade over Misbah in ODI's but that wasn't the case although at times there was an improvement when it came to body language on the field but tactically speaking he was out of his depth