So the inimitable Shoaib Akhtar is back in the limelight, for the wrong reasons yet again. This time it's not for tampering with the ball or hitting a teammate but writing a spiteful book.
The Pakistani speedster claims that Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are not match-winners. And that the Little Master was afraid of him. It is quite human to be perturbed by a bowler of that pace, but is rather strange to score 99 international centuries and not win matches for your country, in Tendulkar's case. Maybe Akhtar cannot bear that his rival from a rival nation is a century away from history and regarded as an all-time great alongside the legendary Sir Donald Bradman and has to taint his name in some way.
Akhtar also states that all bowlers tamper with the ball. There have been many highly successful bowlers who are good fair people who would not resort to cheap tactics. Personally, I find it strange that one is allowed to apply saliva but not dirt on the ball, but even so one man cannot speak for a whole community of bowlers.
Possibly he is missing all the attention and front-page hogging and has tried a stunt again. He has been pleading people to buy the controversial book and they have. The book has been selling well, probably due to the publicity.
The point of an autobiography is to narrate your life story and make it accessible to the public, not to spite fellow cricketers and hog the limelight. That seems to be Shoaib Akhtar's idea in releasing Controversially Yours, post a career littered with problems and subsequent bans.
The Pakistani speedster claims that Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are not match-winners. And that the Little Master was afraid of him. It is quite human to be perturbed by a bowler of that pace, but is rather strange to score 99 international centuries and not win matches for your country, in Tendulkar's case. Maybe Akhtar cannot bear that his rival from a rival nation is a century away from history and regarded as an all-time great alongside the legendary Sir Donald Bradman and has to taint his name in some way.
Akhtar also states that all bowlers tamper with the ball. There have been many highly successful bowlers who are good fair people who would not resort to cheap tactics. Personally, I find it strange that one is allowed to apply saliva but not dirt on the ball, but even so one man cannot speak for a whole community of bowlers.
Possibly he is missing all the attention and front-page hogging and has tried a stunt again. He has been pleading people to buy the controversial book and they have. The book has been selling well, probably due to the publicity.
The point of an autobiography is to narrate your life story and make it accessible to the public, not to spite fellow cricketers and hog the limelight. That seems to be Shoaib Akhtar's idea in releasing Controversially Yours, post a career littered with problems and subsequent bans.
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