Inevitable and frequent as it is, the retirement of a sportsperson is most often a time to rewind past performances and memories without dissecting the complexities connecting the individual with the system of which he is a product. An exception must necessarily be made for Shoaib Akhtar, who has announced his decision to bow out of international cricket, for there is much in the manner of this Pakistani pacer that is in common with the administration — including the administration of sport — in his country. Drawing sustenance from a me-against-the-world philosophy, both Akhtar and those governing Pakistan have ever remained in the headlines.
While Pakistan can never claim to have always been represented by the most well-behaved, united and honest players in the cricket world, such have been Akhtar’s wild ways that there is little missing in his catalogue of controversies: allegations of chucking, ball-tampering, performance-enhancing drugs, tantrums, night-clubbing, swearing at players… and even assaulting a teammate. It is no surprise then that the man axed on disciplinary grounds for the 1996 Sahara Cup in Canada — the tournament that would otherwise have launched his international career — has borne the harshest punishment ever meted out by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). If a 13-match ODI ban was slapped on Akhtar after he hit Md Asif with a bat two days before the World T20 in 2007, he also faced a five-year ban, subsequently reduced to 18 months, for publicly criticising the PCB in 2008. And yet, much like the sports administrators in his country, Akhtar has always refused to learn.
Sport in Pakistan suffers not only from inadequate infrastructure, facilities and sponsorship and a blanket cancellation of tours by international teams due to security concerns, but also selfish interests and mismanagement — Akhtar presenting a classic case in this regard. With Pakistani cricket in urgent need of a poster boy after match-fixing charges against prominent players culminated in the Justice Qayyum report in 2000, the PCB pampered the ‘Rawalpindi Express’ by forgiving all his misdemeanours and even encouraging him not to mend his ways. Indeed, the PCB has been as cavalier in its attitude as Akhtar. Which is why the first bowler to breach the 100mph barrier will retire without fully realising his potential. And any success that Pakistan enjoys in sport continues to be despite the system.