Ah it's been a while since I saw a good old Afridi thread on here. The Afridi fans defending him to no end, whilst the people who dislike him bashing him like theres no tomorrow. Just like the good old days.
Anyway - here is where I stand:
- Afridi did not live up to his potential and could of achieved a lot of a more than he did at the international level
- There were a lot of occasions where he left a lot to be desired, and was unable to play to the match situations.
- He always seemed to be stuck in one gear and he always only knew one way of playing.
- On his day, he was one of the best match winners, and could single handedly win you cricket matches with the bat, ball or on the field. He won a MOTM award in every 12 matches that he played - which in all likely hood meant that he helped you win 1 in 12 matches that he played in. If the other 10 players could produce a similar record, theoretically you could end up winning 11 out of 12 games, which is by no means a shabby record.
- As a player, he would usually bring a lot of energy to the team and always seemed very busy on the cricket field. As a sports personal he is probably one of the most entertaineing cricketers to have played the game
- There have been literally hundreds - if not thousands - of debates on PP with regards to his stats, his performance, his attitude, his retirement etc. etc. however, everyone has their own opinion and no one on this forum will be able to change another posters opinion with regards to Afridi - whether good or bad. For me - that just shows the kind of character Afridi was the amount of passion and emotion he evoked in the fans
For me, personally, he was a cricketing legend, specially when it comes to limited over cricket. He is the kind of player that will be remembered by people in cricketing circuit for many many years to come. personally, I also believe that he will be remembered in a good way rather than negatively.
Look at it this way - at some stage down the line imagine the name Shahid Afridi comes up with the pundits on Sky Sports. Are they likely to say "he threw away his wicket on numerous occasions when Pakistan needed him to deliver" or will they say "he was one of the hardest hitters of a cricket ball and gave us numerous memorable performances such as the 2 sixes against India, the biggest sixes most of us have ever seen against South Africa, the performance in T20 2009 WC, his bowling in the 2011 WC, his 4 6s against Bhajji etc etc."? You and I both know it likely to be the latter.
People usually do not remember or judge you based on what you couldn't do - they remember and judge you based on what you could do & in my opinion Afridi has done enough to be classified as a legend - specially in the limited format of the game - and be remembered fondly for it.
Disclaimer: I've been around this forum long enough, and seen enough Afridi discussions on here, to know that there will be many posters on here who will have a serious problem with what I have said & will feel the need to try and argue against it, or feel like it is their moral duty to inform everyone that they think I've got it all wrong. To those posters I say - please refer to the underlined & italic part in point number 6 and move along
by celebrating his unique career.
Whaddaplaya! 
- The fact that our Lamb eating Beast needed a snack during the game didn't stop the lad from munching onto the very leather that was being battered around by the Aussies 
