Former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar was one of the most terrifying bowlers in the history of this game. During his glorious days, Akhtar used to give nightmares to the bowlers. He is believed to have injured many with his bowling.
Recently, in interaction with Sawera Pasha on the YouTube show Cric Cast, Shoaib Akhtar opened up about his cricketing career and how he batsmen used to ask him to bowl gently to them. He started off by telling that there were many instances during the county cricket when he dismissed the best of the batsmen retired hurt. He revealed:
“In county cricket while I was playing for Worcester, a lot of players got him by my ball when I thought Oh God I have done something wrong. But I don’t know why I was so mean.”
Shoaib recalled a few incidents where he had hit cricketers like Matthew Maynard and Gary Kristen. Recalling how he had once hit Matthew on his jaw. He revealed:
“There was one occasion when Matthew Maynard, a batsman playing for Glamorgan, I told him that let’s go out as it was getting darker since it was not comfortable to face my pace. But he told that he will face me.”
“So, I went round the wicket and bowled him a quick bouncer and the situation was little dull, that hit him on the jaw and he fell on the wickets. I felt that he might die, he was flattened on the ground, he was in a lot of pain. He fell on the wicket and was out as well.”
Shoaib said that he used to feel really bad after hitting people with his ball. He said:
“I felt bad but every time I used to hit people, I used to feel that this shouldn’t have happened.”
Recalling the incident involving Gary Kristen, Akhtar said:
“I had warned Gary Kirsten as well, asking him not to hook me. I told him not to do it as a 36-year-old to the fastest bowler. He also got hit very hard. Whenever he meets me, he shows the mark under his eyes as a souvenir from my side.”
Shoaib Akhtar was asked if any batsmen used to ask him to bowl slowly at a gentle pace and that they would end up getting out themselves. Answering which, Shoaib revealed that there were a lot of tail-enders, from India as well. He revealed:
“There were lot of batsmen like that. Muralitharan was there, lot of players from India, all tail-enders. They used to ask me to get them out but not hit them as it would hit them hard. They used to say that they have wife and kids and that their parents wouldn’t like it.”
Akhtar also revealed how the Sri Lankan off-spinner Muralitharan used to tell him to bowl slowly and that Muralitharan used to step away from the stumps to give away his wickets. He said:
“Muralitharan used to tell me to bowl slowly and he would move away from the stumps. He used to get out very easily.”
Shoaib Akhtar also revealed how, on the other hand, Mohammad Yousuf used to ask him to break the fingers of Muralitharan as he used to find it difficult to face the latter. He revealed:
“Yousuf used to ask me to hit him, to break his fingers as he couldn’t play him. I had bowled a couple of bouncers to Murali and he told me not to do it else he will die. He told that he was very fragile. So I used to feel shy but Yousuf wanted me to hit him.”
Here, watch the video:
