"I still consider myself a better player than many others" : Shahid Afridi

[MenInG]

"Lahore has one cricket academy where the whole of Punjab comes into practice"

"No other cities have an academy; Even I had to shift to Lahore before the World Cup to practice"

"Places in Sindh dont even have basic amenities and we are wondering about cricket players coming from those parts of Pakistan?"

"If we had lots of talent then players like Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Abdul Razzaq would not be still wanting to play today; fact is that we have no new talent coming through"

"Even today, I still consider myself a better player than many others"

"We can only leave when new talent comes through"

"Also its upto players to motivate themselves and play in domestic cricket to make a place for themselves in the national team"

"I am not surprised by the losses in New Zealand and Australia"

"I have high hopes for Sarfraz as he is an aggressive captain"

"Its upto the captain to instill aggression in the team"

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

Yes because you are only 18

 

[Brilliance]

"I am still 16 "

 

[Markhor]

No shame. Absolutely none.

 

[Asim2Good]

Afridi being Afridi

 

[Varun]

"We can only leave when new talent comes through"

This sounds like nothing short of a threat.

Also note the tooting of Sarfraz's horn.

 

[JattMaula]

"Even today, I still consider myself a better player than many others"

Lala you are that and much much more!

 

[Major]

To be honest, him and Misbah are still better hitters of the ball then most of the guys.

Misbah knows how to take a spinners bad ball out of the park, Afridi could do that against any bowler who bowls a bad one.

Our other players dont know how to strike a bad ball.

So he is right to some extent

 

[Major]

Afridi is also right on the new talent.

When your spot isn't even a threat then why should these guys throw away their careers and leave. When there is new talent, new talent gets selected immediately, and when it performs then the oldies are dished out.

But when that threat doesn't even linger, why leave your career

 

[Mamoon]

True, still the best hard hitting spin bowling all-rounder in the country.

 

[fazleefridi]

La-la comeback to tests, Odis and t20s

 

[big_gamer007]

Latter part of his career he was a pretty good bowler and could occasionally make some runs too..how is he still compared to imaad Wasim, Nawaz amad butt and others?

If better than them then what he said is true..

 

[shortbread]

Our other players dont know how to strike a bad ball.

So he is right to some extent

The problem is Afridi cannot differentiate between a good or bad ball!! Trying to slog every delivery is not the recipe to batting success.

If someone like Afridi can still survive in the team, it sets a very low bar for future prospects.

 

[Markhor]

To be honest, him and Misbah are still better hitters of the ball then most of the guys.

Misbah knows how to take a spinners bad ball out of the park, Afridi could do that against any bowler who bowls a bad one.

Our other players dont know how to strike a bad ball.

So he is right to some extent

When he was playing for Pakistan in LOIs in the last few years he's been incapable of putting away full tosses at times.

 

[Solid Snake]

Latter part of his career he was a pretty good bowler and could occasionally make some runs too..how is he still compared to imaad Wasim, Nawaz amad butt and others?

If better than them then what he said is true..

For a few years, roughly between 2008 to 2012, he was genuinely a world class bowling allrounder in T20s and ODIs.

Threatening with the ball, and actually played the odd memorable knock here and there.

But then his bowling went downhill, and the chances of his batting coming off were as good as they ever were throughout the majority of his career.

With the advent of T20s, Afridi stopped being unique. Flat track bashers / blind sloggers are a dime a dozen, and that too many were better than Afridi.

Should not be anywhere the team.

 

[Ami]

Waste of space this guy...

 

[Arham_PakFan]

La-la comeback to tests, Odis and t20s

How about no.

 

[Syed1]

Spain won three major world tournaments in football, but in the fourth one they were eliminated from the first round. Reason: an inability to give youngsters a chance and dropping old players.

 

[90MPH]

Even if it was true you don't blabber like this in front of cameras.

It's classless by him. A victim mentality syndrome he suffers like many before who were left out after going past their prime.

 

[Speedster777]

You are the most incompetent and corrupt player to ever play for Pakistan.

 

[pakistanigoneaussie]

utterly selfish fool, but blackmail and whinging is the favorite activity of our seniors

at best afridi is only good for t20s, but with this caustic attitude he should be gone

 

[HateKiller]

And nobody is arguing against it.

 

[Major]

The problem is Afridi cannot differentiate between a good or bad ball!! Trying to slog every delivery is not the recipe to batting success.

If someone like Afridi can still survive in the team, it sets a very low bar for future prospects.

yeh, that was a big problem, but putting away a bad ball wasn't a problem for him, and thats what gets me annoyed with this team at times as we even block the bad balls due to pressure

 

[Syed1]

yeh, that was a big problem, but putting away a bad ball wasn't a problem for him, and thats what gets me annoyed with this team at times as we even block the bad balls due to pressure

The awkward moment when Misbah fans complain about blocking

 

[Black Zero]

Afridi, when we compare your stats with others, you comes at the last position. It's a national tragedy (along with YK playing so many odis) that you selfishly occupied a space in team, and bigger tragedy that you captained team in all three formats.

 

[Indiafan]

yeh, that was a big problem, but putting away a bad ball wasn't a problem for him, and thats what gets me annoyed with this team at times as we even block the bad balls due to pressure

In his last few years he used to get out on full tosses all the time

 

[Major]

When he was playing for Pakistan in LOIs in the last few years he's been incapable of putting away full tosses at times.

In his last few years he used to get out on full tosses all the time

hmm, to be honest haven't watched much odi cricket after Misbah retired from ODIs, even t20.

But in the past i do remember he had a good eye for the bad ball.

But intodays team, our players don't bother to attack the bad ball, and i think the problem is they play premeditated shots. They don't go along with the ball.
Sharjeel Khan is different though, he knows how to put away the bad ball, but then he also throws his wicket by going after a good ball aswell.

 

[Major]

The awkward moment when Misbah fans complain about blocking

the awkward moment when some posters have comprehension issues......

difference between blocking a good and bad delivery........

 

[Speedster777]

With selfish and incompetent players like Afridi, Hafeez, Shehzad, Akmal, Misbah, Younis no surprise at all why we are number 5 in Tests and number 8 in One Days and T20. We deserve it.

 

[ahmedwaqas92]

This guy still has fans WHY ???????

 

[GullyCricketFlop]

A selfish,arrogant old man who has ruined a lot of our cricket.

 

[ExpressPacer]

I refuse believe that there is no talent through. The situation is still better compared to what it was back in the 80's or even in the 90's. You just like telling yourself that you're not the bad guy by still trying to justify you needless greed to be in the time.

 

[Speedster777]

Of course there's a lot of talent but when the criteria to select a player is his political connections and influence in the board then talent becomes useless.

 

[The_KING]

Afridi isn't wrong though. There is much talent left in our cricket thanks to our poor domestic structure.

 

[Markhor]

Why don't we compare Afridi's numbers with other spin bowling ARs in Pakistan domestic cricket ?

I'd rather have Kamran Ghulam or Zohaib Khan ahead of this joker.

 

[Abdullah719]

Afridi isn't wrong though. There is much talent left in our cricket thanks to our poor domestic structure.

The domestic structure doesn't produce talent.

It's supposed to polish the talented players and get them ready for international cricket.

That's not happening, though, for a variety of reasons.

 

[Markhor]

Latter part of his career he was a pretty good bowler and could occasionally make some runs too..how is he still compared to imaad Wasim, Nawaz amad butt and others?

If better than them then what he said is true..

Come on yaar, I remember even during that MCC benefit match at Lord's a couple of years ago even the oldies were belting him to all parts.

Afridi's fast legbreaks give shivers to no batting team except Kenya, Uganda and Canada which is more his level these days.

 

[The_KING]

The domestic structure doesn't produce talent.

It's supposed to polish the talented players and get them ready for international cricket.

That's not happening, though, for a variety of reasons.

That's what I meant. Of course in a cricket mad country, there will be some talent but that talent don't become polished and developed due to poor domestic structure

 

[Pete Rose]

If we can guarantee every player 300+ odis without any consequences for performance, we will undoubtedly find the next great player.

 

[dhump]

Not his fault kick the person who put microphone in his mouth.

 

[Syed1]

The domestic structure doesn't produce talent.

It's supposed to polish the talented players and get them ready for international cricket.

That's not happening, though, for a variety of reasons.

Then send the best performers on 6-7 A tours a year. Surely playing against other nation's best upcoming talent should be good enough practice for international cricket.

If you still cannot cope then just give up.

 

[Abdullah719]

Then send the best performers on 6-7 A tours a year. Surely playing against other nation's best upcoming talent should be good enough practice for international cricket.

If you still cannot cope then just give up.

They can't give out squads for a tournament, I think we need to lower our expectations.

 

[Syed1]

They can't give out squads for a tournament, I think we need to lower our expectations.

Only hope is that a government comes that makes the PCB an actual professional institution rather than the ad hoc system we have at present.

Can't expect political appointees like Shahryar and Najam to fix the system.

 

[Boom boom legend]

Our limited overs teams have improved so much, all we are missing is a power hitter down the innings. And honestly speaking, I don't think anyone can deny that Afridi is still the best we have.

How Nawaz is getting a game ahead of him I will never know. Inferior bowler and in batting instead of speeding us up in the final overs, he slows us down. If we are talking merit, Afridi still deserves to be in our best 11 which is why he won't retire and you can't really blame him.

 

[big_gamer007]

Come on yaar, I remember even during that MCC benefit match at Lord's a couple of years ago even the oldies were belting him to all parts.

Afridi's fast legbreaks give shivers to no batting team except Kenya, Uganda and Canada which is more his level these days.

I don't follow Pakistani cricket as such so I'm not sure about right now thats why I asked.. But he was good bowler after 2007/8 onwards later part of his career that's why I meant..

 

[Sarfarazian92]

We'll find out in the PSL if you're really better than the others.

A grand total of 87 runs for Mr. Afridi in PSL 2016. Let's see if he can improve that figure.

Took 10 wickets, and 5 of them came in a dead-rubber against Quetta when Quetta made a decent amount of changes to give some of their bench players a chance.