Shaheen proves talent alone is not always sufficient

Kolkata: Shaheen Shah Afridi was quickly hailed as the boy with the golden arm, and rightfully so. His bewitching swing, near-perfect release, and unerring control set him apart on the cricket field. As a left-hander with the iconic Afridi surname, he seamlessly fit into the narrative that Pakistan had unearthed a new talent to follow in the footsteps of legends like Wasim Akram and Mohammad Amir.

Cut to the 2021 T20 World Cup where he had removed Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in consecutive overs and Pakistan couldn’t be faulted for thinking they had struck gold.

Right now though, when Afridi is grappling with the reality of being dropped from the team, at least some of that hype feels hollow. Some of it has to do with his form, which without doubt is worrying as well, given how Afridi’s Test average has worsened from 17.06 in 2021 to 31.30 in 2022, 39.78 in 2023 and 48 this year. The pace too has dipped considerably.

More disturbing is the unconfirmed news of scuffles in the Pakistan dressing room, pointing to an undercurrent of tension that seems to be rapidly getting out of hand. Not that any of this is unexpected in Pakistan cricket. But at a time, world cricket is becoming heavily professional, the denouement of Afridi’s career is a shocking reminder of the scant regard with which talent is still nurtured in Pakistan.

Which makes for a very interesting watch from the Indian point of view, considering how the BCCI has more or less patented the idea of scouting and accelerating talent through the system, unleashing them in the right conditions and micromanaging workloads to the extent that even sacrificing a World Cup was too small a price to preserve his career. Jasprit Bumrah has been the pinnacle of this investment. And rightly so, if we are talking of a magical culmination of all the other worldly skills that make a fast bowler truly a class of his own.

The paradox of Afridi’s career was that for a brief while he was uttered in the same breath as Bumrah. Like with Bumrah, a rousing inception in white-ball cricket did little to suggest that Afridi wasn’t ready to step up to Test cricket. And a debut Test scalp in the form of Tom Latham, with an all-too familiar sight of the ball cutting in and beating his bat, seemed to affirm that. But Afridi now looks more world weary, and that may not be entirely his doing.

It wasn’t as if Afridi didn’t care how his Test career went. But there was growing discontent over the lack of opportunities to earn a living, pulling out of The Hundred before the PCB refused to grant him an NOC for the Global T20 in Canada. This, coming from a board that struggles to sell its broadcast rights, is far from a courteous gesture to its own players. Not to mention the fiasco stoked by the PCB when they had put out a statement containing Afridi’s quotes in support of Babar Azam only days after being deposed as T20 captain.

Bumrah faced none of this. Secured with the highest central contract, given possibly a lifetime role at Mumbai Indians and standing in as captain during the England tour in 2021, Bumrah has let the fame and honour come to him in its own time instead of trying to run after it. Throughout all of it, by the way, has been a relentless battle with a unique injury stemming from a unique action, and yet Bumrah can still manufacture yorkers at ease. At 30, Bumrah is still primed for a considerable career in all the formats largely because of his prudence but also because of the support he has received from the system.

Which turns the light once again on the so-called conveyor belt that churned talent by the dozens for Pakistan but very few have lasted more than a few years. Only a few weeks back, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi had said Pakistan needed a “major surgery” following their disastrous T20 World Cup campaign but now his tune has changed.

“The problem is the selection committee has no pool to turn to from which to select players,” he has reportedly said. “I spoke of surgery because we need to fix our problems. But when we look at how to resolve them, we don’t have any solid data or player pool which we can draw from. The whole system was a mess.”

It leaves the career of Afridi, only 24, in a bit of a mess. On a personal level, there is now a clear gap between expectation and commitment with recurring injuries and diminishing returns. If he sorts out his priorities, there is little doubt Afridi can have a satisfying career from here. Equal, if not more, onus however is on Pakistan’s management. Having failed to judge the temperament of a fine talent once again, the least they could do is take a leaf out of the Bumrah book of player management.

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