Rajas

Read a BRILLIANT piece on Shoaib Akhtar recently, where the writer (forgotten his name) describes him as “Hero, misunderstood, freak, villain, loudmouth, draamey-baaz, chucker, crowd-puller, match-winner”…. All those who can think of other descriptions are welcome

Tina

I would add rock star! What’s draamey-baaz? Some Urdu word?

Rajas

Tina, it means showman. In Shoaib’s case, the translation should be: ’play actor’, LOL.

powerpak

I really think Shoaib Akhtar gets a raw deal every time. Would you say Shane Warne or Brett Lee is any less theatrical? For heaven’s sake, Lee celebrates a tail ender’s wicket like it was his 500th or something. I don’t understand why people are always picking on Shoaib. Okay, so he is a motor mouth, but then so is Kevin Pietersen and he doesn’t get nearly as much bulls**t from the press and fans.

atstump

See, the problem with Shoaib is that he doesn’t know when to talk and when to keep quiet. Pietersen may be a motor mouth, but he always chooses his time and place very carefully, so does Shane, unless he is so desperate that he forgets that journos may be filming his activities. Shoaib very often tells it like it is (remember he correctly said that Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were past their prime in 2003), and so gets into trouble. Heck, even his captain and coach can’t stand him!

tensport

He has a sad life, truly. At least he doesn’t hop into bed with every second woman like Shane Warne does (he gets caught but there are many others who don’t), and he has NEVER done drugs.

Mike

The trouble is he’s so damned inconsistent. You never know what he’ll do next. I remember one spell he bowled against England in the winter of 2005, after lunch on the third day of the second Test at Faisalabad. I remember he began with the old ball at about 90-plus mph, but then he took the new ball, and his run-up became really fierce and woke up the sleepy crowd. That was the spell that took care of Pietersen and Flintoff, and I can’t recall two more destructive deliveries. That was vintage Shoaib.

County

Yea Mike, when he plays like that, you never want the match to end! But Tensport, a Pakistani friend told me Shoaib has numerous girlfriends in Pakistan, and he was the Pakistani player who got involved in a sex scandal during the team’s tour of Australia, though the matter was hushed up and he was never named.

tensport

You have to supply proof, County. That’s just the problem – people make unfounded accusations against Shoaib and get away with them.