Pakistan, nowadays, is grappling with life's hopeless facts. Everything is transient, nothing applies to the cricketing profession of Shahid as well. Early this week, in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), he put out a goodbye post and a video. "Farewell to PSL, my body is in not kidding torment".
His exit has been slow, his retirements and U-turns many. Tests, ODI's, T20 and now franchise cricket, he has periodically lightened his load and dragged his feet while leaving the turf. He did more, no one complained. He was entertaining company. He had the popular vote, he had earned the authority to write his own script and also pull the curtain. He didn’t get the perfect last game. He didn’t get a chance to hit his down-on-knees signature six. Pushed down the order, he wasn’t needed to bat. He did manage a couple of game-changing dismissals with those fast leg-break bowling, he was never about wickets. He could get hysterically entertaining. He even called for a runner once, years after that provision was withdrawn, in a game against Bangladesh, driving spectators up the wall. For the die hard fans, he did oblige with a magical frame in his last game, a reminder of his many triumphs from the time he made his debut in 1996. After a direct-hit run out from wide mid-on, he struck the pose – arms and feet spread wide apart, index fingers pointed to the skies making the silhouette sharper, angelic smile and back arched like a bow. There he was like a giant neon-lit ‘X’ making the central square glow for that one last time. Just before leaving the stage for good, he was underlining his status as international cricket’s original X-factor. After the game, he was asked about the secret of his eternal youth. Feeling his lower back, massaging those fragile L1 and L5, he would say it was love of the fans that kept him going. “I love them, they are my family, they still want to see me in the game. But you have to be 100 percent fit in cricket these days for that.” Next month he would be 42 if you go by cricinfo.com, and 47 if his memoir Game Changer is to be believed. His age is the pursuit of the pedantic. In his case, age is an irrational number. His world record 40-ball 102 when he was 16 or his quick sharp pick-up and throw in the last game, His actions have never been age-appropriate. Back in the day, the Aussie press called him ‘Kid Dynamite’. Years later, Ravi, from the commentary box, gave a more eternal nickname. ‘Boom, Boom’, which also became a high-value brand.
Though, the name that best captured the ageless entertainer was the one given to him by Pakistan. It conveyed affection, it was easy to shout out, it’s just two taps of the tongue to the upper palate. There couldn’t have been a better pet name for the endlessly indulged, easily forgiven, forever-young cricketer.
They say to understand the Cult of trip to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is essential. Those on the 2004 tour to Pakistan talk about the ODI at Peshawar with a twinkle in their eyes. They had carried home tales of magnanimous people and their unabashed bias for their king.
Every self-respecting people in Pakistan’s wild west felt it was his duty to be with him when he was taking on the Indian bowlers. Just a few days back, in the previous one day at Rawalpindi, he had hit a 54-ball 80. He had hit four towering sixes too. Leila was in form, Peshawar wouldn’t have missed the chance of watching their Leila hammering the daylights out of their arch-rivals for anything. “The crowd attempted to break the gates – they wanted him to have another go. They said it was a ‘try ball’, like it was a street match. The cops had to come in with water cannons and tear gas. It’s remarkable that he had that star power just a couple of years into the Pakistan team,” writes Abram in the foreword of Game Changer. To build that reputation, he needed to be strong-willed. His senior wanted his son to be a doctor, but the boy obsessed with big hits had other plans. Coaches in Khyber Agency told the young boy to cut down on his shots, but they gave up as the boy with unusually strong wrists would win the team impossible games. There were those who doubted his age, but once the teenager started thrashing senior bowlers, even those whispers would die. In one of those very popular EID specials on Pakistan television, Leila was asked about his favorite song. After much thought, the daredevil batsman opted for the one from Feroz Khan starrier Janusz. In the subcontinent, brutal world of fickle fans, only the lucky few gets unconditional love.
PS: He says he will continue playing Kashmir Premier League and T20 cricket.
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