At his peak Shoaib Akhtar was sheer terror. Batsmen were uncomfortable facing him while he enjoyed bowling to them. But his stay at the peak was only ephemeral. During his journey on the other side of the hill, he was, again, a terror but with a difference; he terrorised his own team-mates and fans more than the batsmen, who now loved to face him and he struggled to even run up to the bowling crease without huffing and puffing. There is no dearth of glimpses of the former. Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid … they all hopped and ducked against Shoaib. Similarly, there is no dearth of glimpses of the latter either. Just recall the over he bowled at the death end of New Zealand innings when Ross Taylor was going berserk during the ongoing World Cup. The over stats read: 4,6,6,Wd,0,4,Wd,6 … a total of 28 runs, including two wide balls. He ended up conceding 70 off his nine overs with one wicket to his name.

Now that he has decided to throw in the towel, it is difficult to say that Shoaib would make it to most people’s All Times XI either today or a decade later because that would require proven performance over a period of time. But what can be said without any doubt or debate is the fact that Shoaib was first and foremost a showman and he loved that tag more than anything else.

All sports need some characters to give them life and make them connect with the audience. They have to be decent enough players to throw tantrums and still be acceptable. But they don’t necessarily get their professional act together every time they step onto the field of play.

Take, for instance, tennis. John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ile Nastase, Borris Becker and Andre Agassi were all mavericks who did well, but their trophy shelves don’t have as much to show as their potential deserved. Compare them with the likes of Ivan Lendl, Stephen Edberg, Pete Sampras who were all more hardworking than intuitional. They ended up winning a lot more because they could keep their focus for long. Mavericks bring colour to a game. People love to watch them and their antics. Shoaib qualifies on all counts. He was the eternal bad guy of Pakistan Cricket and his career remains dotted with controversies. There were some who pampered him, but there were many more who tried to cut him down to size. Both the strategies failed and he remained what he was.

There were times when he cut a sorry figure. It was such a pain to watch him labour his way to the bowling crease. His body had so much flab that it was bulging out of his attire. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to keep his shirt tucked in for the bulge was all the time pushing it out. And yet, as soon as he sensed he had a chance to make a comeback, he started working on his physical fitness. He did return to the national side. The Twenty20 format was his vehicle as a bowler can’t bowl more than four overs. That sort of workload favoured him, especially when he had to bowl them in at least two bursts, if not three. While he sported a lean figure on return, his bowling was not half as mean as it once used to be.

The World Cup was always going to be his swansong. Even if Kamran Akaml had taken those two catches — a regulation chance and a ranked dolly — Shoaib had to move on beyond the Cup. At his rather well-mannered press conference where he said all the politically correct things like the need to “make way for youngsters”, he did mention that “mentally I wanted to continue perhaps forever”. This, at best, was his hope that he shared in equal measure with his boss Ijaz Butt. However, while Mr Butt will in all probability continue in his job for he is highly and widely connected, Shoaib has moved on and that is good for him.

If that over in the New Zealand innings remains his last in international cricket, which is a distinct possibility under the circumstances, it will be a fitting finale to a career that saw more of the downside than anything else. But for Kamran Akmal, things would have been so different both for Shoaib and the team. Ironically, that is precisely what Shoaib Akhtar’s epithet should be. He will not be remembered as much for what he was as for what he might have been.

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