Crocodile tears!!

This guy Shoaib Akhtar, you can work him up so easily. I always knew he was a showman to the core and enjoys every bit of what he does -- on or off the field. And as the tear-away fast bowler landed in South Africa for the Twenty20 World Cup, I thought he was going to make waves with his bowling.
No, but before anything of that sort could happen, he decided to use his bat. Just that instead of smashing a juicy delivery, the Rawalpindi Express whacked his teammate Mohd Asif at nets after an altercation and was promptly put on the next flight back home.
How does one describe the latest act of Akhtar? Was it a moment of madness which needed to be hushed up or was it blown out of proportion, necessitating a quick initiation from the team management. In my mind, what the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) did was very right. Cricket across the border is passing through turbulent times, just like the whole nation, where uncertainty exists in every sphere of life.
It would be no exaggeration to state that the cricket world missed Akhtar the maverick star at the World Cup in the West Indies where Pakistan made an early exit. And even as the team flew back in shock after the murder of coach Bob Woolmer, TV bytes of an emotional Shoaib weeping and telling the media how close he was to Bob seemed unreal. In a way, Shoaib was lucky he was not sent to the West Indies by the PCB as they knew he would flunk a drug test. That was the reason why he had to miss the Champions Trophy last October.
But was Shoaib honest in shedding tears for the departed coach with whom he had a spat bang in the middle of the second Test in Port Elizabeth which was caught by TV cameras? I honestly feel it is very difficult to predict what Shoaib will do.
Pictures of the quickie steaming in to bowl with his sweat-drenched hair flying is exciting for women who happen to be his fans. But not many would be aware that injury-prone Shoaib had been told by Woolmer to cut down on his run-up when he had frequent breakdowns and would have to cool his heels for rehab.
I feel Shoaib cares two hoots about what the world thinks of him. When the team is competing overseas and he is not part of it, he flies down to Bollywood, has a whale of a time and goes back happy. I have this nagging suspicion if Shoaib really cared about his (bad boy) image, he would one day have actually wiped it out and started afresh.
But as has been the case with him for over a decade now, each time he walks out of one controversy, the next one is waiting for him round the corner! Way back in 1996, when the Pakistan A team toured England and Shoaib took 25 wickets, he was dropped for the ODI squad going to Toronto because of indiscipline. In 2000, he gets fined 50,000 Pakistan rupees for indiscipline. The 2003 World Cup is held in England and just after Pakistan are out of the tournament, Shoaib is dropped and told his career is finished if he does not improve his behaviour.
As if this was not enough, came the doping allegations that the man who has an appetite for a full goats meat was using nandrolene! Had it been any other country, Shoaib would never have got to play the sport. In a way, despite the disciplinary actions initiated time and again by the PCB against him, the bowler has never come back with his head hanging in any kind of shame.
What the sporting world has only got to see is a more arrogant and unrepentant Shoaib, as if he could get away with anything. There is no doubting his talent and ability to bowl fast, which can be very intimidating for the batsmen. But does being talented mean you can get away with any act of indignation?
Being a sportsperson ideally means learning to be disciplined. At least, that is what is taught at the very basic stage by the coaches, irrespective of what arena they are in. In Shoaib’s case, discipline is something which he lacked right from the beginning.
A lot of things are overlooked when a sportsperson is immensely talented and is a match-winner. Had Shoaib been kept under check from the beginning and educated, it could have been a different story. Back home, be it tennis or cricket, superstars like Vijay Amritraj and Sachin Tendulkar have identified themselves as not just brand ambassadors but ambassador of the nation.

Sadly in Shoaib’s case, he can never be seen as a role model. He is a superstar with a king-size ego and larger than life image who has got carried away into an unreal world where discipline doesn’t matter. Yes, he did express “regret” for his team after hitting Asif with the bat, but that was just another statement and not a reflection of his anguish.
Almost twenty years back, when I was a rookie in this profession, I happened to be covering a cricket tournament called the SAIL Trophy finals. And on the last day of the match, there was a brawl between Manoj Prabhakar and Maninder Singh on the field. Manoj hit Maninder with the bat and the match had to be abandoned. It made headlines the next day in newspapers, though there were no private channels then.
But a direct fall-out of that incident was both these Delhi cricketers realised they had done something stupid and never repeated a mistake like that. Today, years after Prabhakar and Maninder’s cricketing careers are over, they are still remembered as game triers who competed at the highest level with a big heart.
I am not saying that Shoaib does not have the heart for bowling long spells and he does not want to win matches for Pakistan. I honestly feel when dusk sets on his colourful career, he will be remembered for the wrong reasons: Not for his ability to send someone like Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket cart-wheeling but a problematic character who made it tough for captains who had to handle him.
If and when he returns to play again for Pakistan, Shoaib will again be scrutinized. Can we expect the maverick who can do magic to turn a new leaf in a few months’ time?
I really can’t see that happening!