It was unfortunate that Shahid Afridi and Javed Miandad, great cricketers in their respective times,should have entered into a verbal duel. It has left a very bad taste in the mouth of cricket lovers of this country.
Shahid Afridi is well past his prime. His well wishers feel that he should have hung up his gloves gracefully and not indulged in dilly dallying in the matter of his retirement. It is understandable that it is very difficult for some players to reconcile themselves with their retirement after remaining in public glare for a long time but there comes a time in the life of every sportsman to face this reality. It is in the evidence that many other sports analysts besides Miandad have been indirectly suggesting Afridi to call it a day as he no longer deserved a place in any format of cricket. Javed was not the only person to hold this view. It seems that stung by Miandad’s suggestion, Shahid made some unwanted remarks about Javed Miandad in sheer desperation and frustration as he probably was still nursing the hope that he might be recalled by the PCB for the current and forthcoming tour of Emirates and the Down Under. When he was not taken to England this summer as a member of Pakistan cricket team he couldn’t stomach his non-_inclusion in Pakistan cricket team and issued a sardonic statement saying that our team didn’t have any talented player. He was proved wrong by excellent performance of our boys,particularly, the youngsters and that must have added more to his frustration.
Javed Miandad is a cricket legend and a very senior former cricketer. He too should have observed abundant caution in the selection of words while giving a rejoinder to Shahid Afridi’s reaction to his view that he should call it a day. The slanging match between them in the media did no service to Pakistan’s cricket.
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