'Boom Boom' Shahid Afridi01/03/2013
Of Shahid Afridi it can safely be said that cricket never has and never will see another like him. To say he is an allrounder is to say Albert Einstein was a scientist; it tells a criminally bare story.
Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi was born on 1 March 1980. He is known for his aggressive batting style, and holds the record for the fastest ODI century which he made in his first international innings, as well as scoring 32 runs in a single over, the second highest scoring over ever in an ODI. He also holds the distinction of having hit the most number of sixes in the history of ODI cricket. In October 1996 at the age of sixteen, Afridi debuted for Pakistan in ODIs as a leg spinner as a replacement for the injured Mushtaq Ahmed, against Kenya. In his first international innings, against Sri Lanka, aged 16 years and 217 days, Afridi became the youngest player to score an ODI century. Two years later, Afridi made his Test debut against Australia in October 1998. He took five wickets. Afridi scored his maiden Test century, scoring 141 runs from 191 balls, against India in 1990. On 21 November 2005, Shahid Afridi was banned for a Test match and two ODIs for deliberately damaging the pitch in the second match of the three-Test series against England. Television cameras pictured him scraping his boots on the pitch scuffing the surface when play was held up after a gas canister exploded. Afridi later pleaded guilty to a level three breach of the ICC code of conduct relating to the spirit of the game. Afridi was charged on 8 February 2007 of bringing the game into disrepute after he was seen on camera thrusting his bat at a spectator who swore at him on his way up the steps after being dismissed. Afridi was given a four-game ODI suspension. On 31 January 2010, Afridi was caught on camera biting into the ball. Later Afridi pleaded guilty to ball tampering and he was banned from two T20 internationals. Shahid Afridi had took over as captain in T20Is shortly after Pakistan won the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. In March 2010 Shahid Afridi was appointed ODI captain. He led Pakistan in the 2010 Asia Cup and during his first three matches as ODI captain he scored two centuries. In July 2010, Afridi captained Pakistan in the first Test of the series at Lord's against England. After the match, he announced retirement from Test cricket citing lack of temperament for Test cricket as the reason. On 30 May, 2011 Afridi announced his conditional retirement from international cricket in protest against his treatment by the PCB. The condition on his return was that the board be replaced. The PCB suspended Afridi's central contract, fined him $52,300, and revoked his NOC which allowed Afridi to play for Hampshire. In October he withdrew his retirement as Ijaz Butt had been replaced as chairman of the PCB. Afridi was included in Pakistan's squad to face Sri Lanka. His general style of batting is very aggressive and attack oriented that has earned him the nickname "Boom Boom Afridi". Moreover, out of the seven fastest ODI centuries of all time, Afridi has produced three of them. He is the only player to score more than 7,000 ODI runs at an average under 25. Having started as a fast bowler, Afridi decided to start bowling spin after he was told he was throwing. Afridi began his career as primarily a bowler, however after scoring the fastest century in his maiden ODI innings more was expected of him with the bat. |
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