Tagged with shoaib akhtar

shoaib watch, up close and thermal

I made my way down to the oval at lunch time, as you all know, nothing happens in the first session of a county match.

As I passed the oval tube a blonde man in a green tracksuit dawdling around looking like someone had stolen his lollipop.

I left swanny at the tube station looking confused and made my way to the ground. At the ground I met my contemporary, chief animated viddy blogger ayalac.

There we discussed Trotsky’s influence on modern art, the true meaning of un chien andalou, and what the dow jones affect of foreign wheat markets is.

Then we saw a fox on the sightscreen, it sat there for a long time, at first in the sun, then in the shade.

Finally after alot of guffawing, a groundsman went over and chased the fox, although chased is probably too harsh a term, and the fox bolted. It wasn’t an Essex fox you see, they are made of tougher stuff.

Then the cricket started, well infact it had been going on all along, but we were thrust back into the moment as Shoaib dropped a catch.

Then he gave a moan reminiscent of a hump back whale being penetrated by a wet Japanese man.

And he lay there for what felt like 24 seconds, but was probably 22, or 23, before getting up and not being able to find the ball.

Shoaib hadn’t been on the field all day, because of the fox, but now the groundsman had got rid of the fox, and his hands were warmed up from the drop he was ready to rock and roll.

During his spell, in which his run up seemed to start from the second row of the members, he spent his off overs infront of us, dying.

Think of the unfittest man you have ever seen, someone panting, gasping, swearing, holding on to life by the merest whisker.

That was he.

He breathed so hard it hurt us to watch.

Then Shoaib took it to an all new level, like a young prince calling to a mere peasant servant, he called for his favourite fox chasing groundsman to come out and do work on him.

Shoaib, like a royal Whitney Houston lay on the ground while the man with the green thumbs and palms of ecstasy rode his neck.

It was sensual, sexual, and gratifying for all involved.

Even the young guys who kept talking about how good a bowler Brett Lee was at the top of their voices. Being so close to the great diva does have its advantages.

At one stage he was wearing two jumpers, this was just after he had recreated a scene from flashdance, and he told his friend the groundsman that in Pakistan it is 40 degrees, the groundsman nodded in awe, like a servant peasant that he was.

Then a ball got hit fine of him at fine leg for four.

I suggested, in a gentlemanly manner that if he chased after it that the effect of such a chase may result in warmness.

Then things got tricky.

According to Ayalac’s ears, which are exquisite, he said yar, yar, yet did not move.

According to your humble narrator he said nar, nar, yet did not move.

This provided much discussion.

Then they called the day off, Shoaib went back to his hotel room, probably with the groundsman, but probably not the fox.

And we went to a pub, and thoroughly discussed the days play.

That Shoaib, what a crazy kid.

Shoaib Akhtar 14 1 63 0 4.50 (1nb)

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Shoaib till tea

It almost rains at lunch, and almost rain in England means the groundsmen rush around like speed afflicted monkeys and by the time they cover the wicket it has passed.

Shoaib is back on, having swapped ends straight after lunch.

He strays down the legside again, and another 4, fine leg has come way finer, Butcher is obviously expecting more, experienced cricketer that he is.

There was a very quick one in there, it almost took batty out.

There is harldy a better waste of 20 seconds than Ahktar’s run up.

5-0-20

Bowlers who have out bowled Shoaib so far:

Pedro Collins, by a long, long way.

Alex Tudor, by a considerable margin.

And Jade Dernbach, by a few yards.

First ball of the 6th was straight outta hell, and almost took Carberry’s throat out.

This is his best over, he is finally on line to Carberry, and looks venounmess.

With that Carberry is out. Caught behind, and Shoaib did the whole aeroplane celebration as well, you could hear the scream of delight from the press box, and in the oval press box you usually can’t hear much.

He is glowing now, Butcher has 3 slips, a floater, a gully, a short leg, and a silly mid off.

Smell blood they do.

Suddenly his run up looks fluent, and he even chased one off his own bowling, which I suppose he had to as everyone else is in close.

Still finishes with a slower ball though, that is the third time he has finished with a slower ball.

6-1-22

He looks like a new man now, I will resist the urge to make a joke about what he snorted for lunch, as that would be unfair.

But he does look like a force now.

Benham does not look comfortable, had to dig one out of his adams apple.

Big appeal for an LB, probably not out, but Shoaib didn’t seem to share my opinion as he ended up past the batsman, and then had a 30 second strop.

He has his prance on now. Mind you he is 3 overs into his spell, so how long will this last.

Having said that, now he is bowling venom, he will probably bowl more than 4 overs.

7-1-1-22

His first ball is met with the middle of the bat, and still ends with a gasp from Shoaib, the second ball is left alone and gets a head to the sky followed by a hand on the chin.

Right at the moment his facial expressions and dramatics are more exciting than his balls.

The loudest non Shahadat hossain over ever.

8-1-1-23

And he is off, the ground even.

He has limped his way off the ground and then walked gingerly up the stairs looking for love and comfort.

Then play was suspended for light, and then rain, which meant Shoaib could have a more leisurely rub down.

Play resumed and he came back on one over later.

12, the number of times Shoaib has been the last player in his position for the next over.

And they are off.

First for bad light, then the covers come out.

There is nothing like covers at the oval, hopefully one day I will be allowed on to use it as the longest slippery dip ever.

I suppose they have called tea.

EDIT: Shoaib went off with a blister on his foot according to the gaurdian’s correspondent. I have no reason to doubt him, the correspondent, not Shoaib.

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Shoaib till Lunch

Surrey won the toss and decided to make the most of their financial outlay and bowl first.

More importantly Shoaib is bowling from my end.

His run up is so long, it feels as if he is starting underneath the press box.

He doesn’t look like he will make the crease, but he does, and he fires down a bouncer at a good clip.

His second ball was even quicker at the chest, and a no ball.

Second ball, take two, was quick outside off.

The third ball is a slower ball down the leg side.

Fourth ball was a quick Yorker, Shoaib takes a few deep breaths after dispatching that one.

Fifth ball is a riser outside off and slaps into Batty’s gloves.

Sixth ball looks like a slower one again, but is full and straight.

1-0-2

Ormond has made way for Shoaib, in real terms I wonder who is fitter.

The first ball of his second over was taken by Batty in front of second slip, it was a wide, but that seems like an understatement.

The rest of the over is much more mundane, he strays down the legside at one stage and gets clipped for 4.

2-0-13

He seems to be all about the slower balls today, have counted 3 in 2 overs.

First ball of the third over is his best so far, on a good length, takes off and beats the bat, yet again hits Batty’s hands very hard.

Next ball strikes brown hard on the pad as well, he looks like he has found some kind of Shoaib style rhythm.

No, I spoke too soon now he is bowling crap down the legside again.

3-0-14

3 ordinary short balls, two down the legside and a knee high full toss that looked like it came at a similar pace to a Stuart MacGill shocker.

It’s been a long spell, time for a break perhaps?

4-0-16

With that huge spell he is rested.

In the field he is walking in hard, looks keen, is talking up the team, no sorry that is Ramps.

Shoaib is stretching a lot, groin and hamstring, talking to the umpire, and looking a little bored.

He just dived to save a four, which is a good sign, even if it did look like slow motion.

Next ball he chased one, and while it took him a while to warm himself up, by the end he was flying and saved the third. Although he did spend the whole time looking over his shoulder to see if he should be running at full speed.

Shoaib did seem to get excited over Alex Tudor’s bowling, and he is the only one to do so since 2001.

He is alternating his stance between tea pot, arms crossed and the arm hold behind the back, interesting stuff.

At one stage he did a commando roll, even though the ball was not in play, and nothing was happening in general. Great stuff.

I just realised that Shoaib has had no real contact with any of the Surrey boys, which is fair enough, new team and all that, except that one of them is a former team mate in Saqlain.

I will watch this for further developments.

Lunch, he walks off arm in arm with Alex Tudor.

Those two have a special bond, that only under performing quick bowlers can have.

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Shoaib watch

Tomorrow I am going to the oval to report on Shoaib.

If he scratches himself, I’ll tell you how.

If he wets himself, I’ll tell you what colour.

If, and I do mean if, he takes a wicket, I will be there for that as well.

I shall be Shoaib’s shadow for the day.

Like a Karachi drug dealer.

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Shoaib gets caught at the border

I don’t know what Surrey was playing at. 
But someone has fucked up. 
And their potential saviour Shoaib Ahktar could not get past the border security. 
I will not make any jokes about Muslims getting caught without Visas. 
I don’t know how mistakes like this are made, but this was a good one. 
Shoaib was to be the metaphoric white knight, and now all they have is Matthew Nicholson.
Again. 
When i arrived in London, with slightly less fanfare than Shoaib, i was asked the rules of my visa. 
Once of which was that you cannot play professional sport, unless you are on a professional sport visa. 
You’d think a county cricket team that brings people over to play for them all the time might know the rules. 
Perhaps not. 
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I can’t quit you

Ahktar’s return is only 18 months away.

Mark it down on your calendar.

The question is can we wait 18 months?

Andre Nel may be finished forever.

Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth are surely not going to get caught being freakin morons again.

Jesse Ryder may never recover.

Mark Cosgrove can’t make a run for South Australia.

Freddy Flintoff can’t find a spot in Englands side.

And Lasith Malinga doesn’t get caught with drugs or hit team mates with bats.

Don’t tell anyone I said so, but I miss Shoaib.

I still despise him for being a lazy soft fucker.

But I miss his antics.

I miss his stupid statements.

His stubborn refusal of baldness.

His photo opportunities with Geoff Lawson.

His telling the Pakistan people not to revolt for his cause.

His excuses.

His arrogance.

His part time performances.

And most of all I miss his personality off the field.

Because he had one.

Sure he was a selfish drug taking playboy, but he was our selfish drug taking play boy, and who are we left with?

Kyle Mills?

Brett Lee?

Dale Steyn?

Chaminda Vaas?

None of the bowlers are ready to be Shoaib.

They are professional cricketers.

We want play boys, angry mentalists, drunkards, and fatties.

Shoaib was every bad cricket habit rolled into one.

So I beg of the Pakistan cricket board, let the boy play.

We need someone to bag, hate, love and laugh at again, and Younis Khan and Muhammad Asif combined cannot do the job.

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If it wasn’t for arsonists, would we have the ashes?

One of my vigilant readers sent me an email saying:

Not sure if you’d caught up on the fact that Mark Vemuelen is considering a comeback.

Apparently he just wants a couple of matches…

Thanks LG

This caught my eye for two reasons, one he made a great arson related pun.

And two, because it is true.

The man who was deemed too mentally ill to commit arson wants to come back to international cricket.

Ofcourse he hasn’t mentioned that the reason he left international cricket was that Irfan Pathan hit him with a cream pie.

But should we let mentally ill people play cricket.

It’s an interesting question, so I posed it to Andre Nel.

He head butted me.

So I asked Sreesanth, but he ran away stripped down naked and was flicking away imaginary rats.

I got hold of Michael Clarke, who said

“Narcisscism is not a mental illness you know, it’s a personality disorder”.

From there I contacted Freddy Flintoff, but he couldn’t hear me in his hyperbaric chamber.

I talked to Shoaib, he seemed to really warm to me, I spoke to him for about ten minutes, before he turned to his minder and said

“I don’t think this guy has any coke”.

After all that I got hold of Jesse Ryder.

“Fu©ked if I know mate, can you hold that Tequila for me, my hand is fu©ken killing me”.

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Shoaib with breasts

“The Shoaib Akhtar [of our team] is Asmavia Iqbal, she’s the fastest bowler and her favourite player is Shoaib Akhtar. She copies everything he does. The only difference between him and her is that she’s completely fit, sticks to her game and does the job she’s asked to do.”

Urooj Mumtaz, the Pakistan women’s captain

I love it when people stick it to Shoaib

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Younis returns from his napsky

A week ago Younis Khan decided to have a rest.

He had a particularly nasty interview with ICC Gestapo about the C word.

This meant he was struggling to make runs against the deluxe A number 1 attack of the Bangladeshi Kittens.

So he went to the PCB and asked for the series off.

Perhaps the Pakistani media militia have already covered this and i missed it, or perhaps they missed it during Ahktar month.

What is worse here, that Younis was so upset by people trying to find out if he committed match fixing that he couldn’t handle the pressure of a 5 game one day series against the Kittens.

Or

That he pulled out of a series saying he would be available to play, only to magically arrive again.

Or

That he has magically reappeared just before the start of the IPL, which i am sure is just a coincidence.

Or

That a man who recently wanted the captaincy can’t handle a couple of cricket administracrats giving him the good cop bad cop routine.

Or

That he has never made a run against Ireland.

Or

That he wears his collar up in official photos making him look like a bit of a tosser.

You be the judge.

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Pakistani beef market

Somehow cricket in Pakistan has continued even without Shoaib Ahktar.

Their other Shoaib, the logical, sane and less talented one, is still their captain.

But a week is a long time in Cricket.

In Pakistani cricket a week is several life times.

Since Shoaib Malik’s showing at the 2020 world whatever it was, his team has struggled.

A look at the current line up against Bangladesh gives you an idea why.

Salman Butt averages about 30 in both forms of the game, and so far has done nothing other than have a cool name.

Nasir Jamshed is not somewhere you keep jars, but is actually a young cricketer who is yet to confirm his place in the side, and yet to make a big splash in general.

Younis Khan is the Pakistani version of Elvis, except that he isn’t as sexy, cool, or talented (ummm) as him.

Mohammad Yousuf is a top class international player, probably the only one in the side, he is also a scientologist.

Shoaib Malik is the youngest looking 26 year old Pakistan has ever had. He may actually be the age he claims to be. Will be a very handy cricketer, but right now is just a cricketer.

Misbah Ul Haq has the same surname as Inzy and a lovely cricket backside. He can bat, but probably won’t be around for long.

Shahid Afridi is Shaihid Afridi.

Kamran Akmal is a male model, who dabbles in wicketkeeping. Used to be a sh1t hot batsmen. Now is not.

Umar Gul is a player who is destined to be called Sea. The boy can bowl, but is never going to be an out and out match winner.

Sohail Tanvir is a quick who can also bowl spin. So far I am yet to see him bowl either particularly well, but could be a handy one day option.

Iftikhar Anjum is Rao Iftikhar, true story.

Not a lot of high priced cattle for Malik to play with there.

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