Dellusional Shahid Afridi Fans

[Bublu Bhuyan]

Alright. I don't have any thing against Pakistan. In fact I really admire players like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. So please don't take this thread as an insult to Pakistan cricket.

Having said that, we all know that star players often have a huge fan following. Tendulkar, Lara, Ponting, Warne, McGrath, Richards, Sobers all have their set of loyal fans. However, there is only one player who can be classified as far below average and who has done absolutely nothing in his career other than swing his bat like a mad man, and yet surprisingly have such a huge set of loyal fans. The name? Shahid Afridi.

It's one thing to be a fan of Afridi, but there are a lot of fans who in fact believe that he's a legend and that he better than the likes of even Sachin Tendulkar. For them he's the ultimate match winner, when in fact he's probably the biggest match loser I've seen in my life.

Just to give you a hint of what I'm speaking of, here is a thread regarding Shahid Afridi, on whether he's a legend or not. The thread is from a Pakistani forum. Please take my advise and read every post in this thread, and I guarantee you that you'll end up laughing your head off. The thread is titled 'Afridi - Will he ever be a legend?' Here is the link to that thread - PakPassion - Pakistan Cricket Forum - Afridi - Will he ever be a legend?


So what's your personal opinion. Will he ever be a legend? As I ask this ......:rtfl:laugh

 

[khalek]

He's got the silkiest hair in world cricket so why not?

BTW, this one was posted by someone in PP

Afridi lights up the entire stadium, even in test cricket.

It all depends on how you define a legend really, if you mean the better averages the more of a legend someone will be, then no, he won't be a legend.

But the stronger implication of legend, as I see it, in sports, is someone memorable, popular. Afridi is certainly already a legend.

In terms of popularity, he pwns the fathers of all legends. Sad but true.

 

[ksduded]

oh come one..... how many times have we gone over this? Every nation have their delusional fans.... there is a thing called 'charisma' and Afridi has bundles of it. On top of he is a match winner on his day and can single handedly win Pakistan matches... be it bowling (which is incredibly consistent recently) and batting (which is incredibly inconsistent)....

there is a buzz around because you never know what is going to happen.... people like that.... he is unpredictable.... when he arrives on the crease or when he is bowling, you know something is going to happen..... cricket needs excitement to cater to the mass audience... Afridi provides that.... pure and simple...

and the fans are the first one to make fun of him as well.... there were hundreds of placards about Afridi's recent adventures

 

[hacker]

If Afridi was a legend their should be Over 1000 legends in World cricket right now

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Well, he'll always be a legend in my eyes. Big hitting, frank honestly, the blatant attempts at cheating in desperate attempts to win a game. His ability to bat with an absolute disregard for the bowler and match situation, the fact that he can literally hit any ball for six, his very underrated but aggressive spin. His body language, his energy, his eternal youthfulness.

He's the cricketer we all want to be. Talented, dangerous, popular with the team and always energetic and aggressive regardless of the match state. Yet at the same time, playing cricket as it was meant to be played, like a game.

You see, Afridi is the impulsive instinct in all of us. When we are out in the middle, batting in a league/school/club/friendly game, we do our best to play correctly. We try to push the ball around and protect our wicket to avoid a collapse. We take singles, block half-decent deliveries. We feel the pressure from friends and team-mates to win the game, fearing their scorn if we fail. In the back of our mind, we all know that it doesn't matter if we win or lose this. The result is inconsequential, it'll soon be forgotten as just another game. Life moves on. We all know that cricket is meant to be fun and enjoyed, but batting out there is anything but fun. It's pressure. We see a ball we know we can hit, but we don't, because we could just as well get out and cost our team a game, be put down for our poor shot.

But then we then get a juicy half tracker, and our eyes light up, and we are in a dilemma. The sensible, level-headed cricket fan in us tells us to put that away for a couple of runs, hopefully beat the fielder and sneak a boundary, but to play it sensibly. Our team mates will yell out 'nice shot', the fielding team will yell at the bowler for being loose, and everything will be well. But the Afridi in us is excited. He wants us to smash the ball, hit is as hard as we've ever hit the cricket ball, aim to smash it into the parking lot next to the ground. It's there to be hit, all we need to do is swing for the fences...but we can't, and we don't, and afterwards, we wish we had been Afridi.

Because while that shot would have failed 9 times out of 10, the one time it comes off, that one glorious instant, you feel on top of the world. Your teammates go wild, the bowling team look on in shock, and your love for the game increases tenfold.

Because that's what we all want to be, deep deep down inside. We want to be the matchwinner, the big hitter, the one who takes the game by storm. But we lack to courage to keep on swinging, ball after ball. We fear failure. We lack the Afridi nature.

And that's why we love Afridi, because he does what we don't dare to do. Screw club cricket, he does it at the international level, in grand finals, in front of thousands of screaming fans. He sees the ball, and he keeps on swinging. He goes for glory, regardless of the situation, and we cheer him on. Because when it comes off, we are on top of the world. His success gives us the belief that we too, can be a match winner. That if we had the guts to keep on swinging that we too could, one day, but the one who tears the bowling attacks apart, who breaks records, be the one who is labelled a 'match-winner'.

But we don't do it. And we don't like it.

And that's why when we turn on the TV to see Pakistan play, we wait for Afridi. And we watch, and we pray and hope that he comes off good.

 

[King Pietersen]

Just a shame he's a massive twat.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Meh

 

[Params7]

People need to understand he's currently Pakistan's only icon player who hasn't retired. All the rest have hardly made if any impact at international cricket. If Inzy, Akram, even Shoaib were still there the Pak fans wouldn't be worshiping Afridi right now. But its like that saying Kaam niklane ke liye ghadhe ko bhi baap banana padta hai (basically hindi version of Beggars can't be chosers). Pak are currently T20 Champs right now and that's mostly because Afridi's game winning antics last tournament. Don't be surprised if they cheer him like crazy again because of another T20 WC around the corner, after getting their asses handed to them in Australia, having their team embarrassed by IPL managers, the whole Captain drama that's still going on, etc. To them right now Afridi is just going through a rough phase but hopefully he'll get it all together before the WC and bring them some tears of joy.

If they lose their only hero playing in the team, they possibly wouldn't care to tune into any cricket anymore. Its a pity really.

 

[Ollie_H]

Anyone remember the guy that came here and made a video about how great Afridi was? It included loads of pics of sheep being skinned and he nicknamed Afridi 'The Skinner' or something. Was really quite disturbing.

 

[Insomniac]

Anyone remember the guy that came here and made a video about how great Afridi was? It included loads of pics of sheep being skinned and he nicknamed Afridi 'The Skinner' or something. Was really quite disturbing.

EDIT:The following stuff could be disturbing. Proceed with caution. This and this is the guy I was talking about.

I think he was right on the mark with those videos about Afridi.

Very scarily accurate.

 

[pcfan123]

Afridi is a hack, anyone who watches cricket with any sense of objectivity can tell you that.

 

[drainpipe32]

He's sooo overrated.

 

[BKB1991]

Well, he'll always be a legend in my eyes. Big hitting, frank honestly, the blatant attempts at cheating in desperate attempts to win a game. His ability to bat with an absolute disregard for the bowler and match situation, the fact that he can literally hit any ball for six, his very underrated but aggressive spin. His body language, his energy, his eternal youthfulness.

He's the cricketer we all want to be. Talented, dangerous, popular with the team and always energetic and aggressive regardless of the match state. Yet at the same time, playing cricket as it was meant to be played, like a game.

You see, Afridi is the impulsive instinct in all of us. When we are out in the middle, batting in a league/school/club/friendly game, we do our best to play correctly. We try to push the ball around and protect our wicket to avoid a collapse. We take singles, block half-decent deliveries. We feel the pressure from friends and team-mates to win the game, fearing their scorn if we fail. In the back of our mind, we all know that it doesn't matter if we win or lose this. The result is inconsequential, it'll soon be forgotten as just another game. Life moves on. We all know that cricket is meant to be fun and enjoyed, but batting out there is anything but fun. It's pressure. We see a ball we know we can hit, but we don't, because we could just as well get out and cost our team a game, be put down for our poor shot.

But then we then get a juicy half tracker, and our eyes light up, and we are in a dilemma. The sensible, level-headed cricket fan in us tells us to put that away for a couple of runs, hopefully beat the fielder and sneak a boundary, but to play it sensibly. Our team mates will yell out 'nice shot', the fielding team will yell at the bowler for being loose, and everything will be well. But the Afridi in us is excited. He wants us to smash the ball, hit is as hard as we've ever hit the cricket ball, aim to smash it into the parking lot next to the ground. It's there to be hit, all we need to do is swing for the fences...but we can't, and we don't, and afterwards, we wish we had been Afridi.

Because while that shot would have failed 9 times out of 10, the one time it comes off, that one glorious instant, you feel on top of the world. Your teammates go wild, the bowling team look on in shock, and your love for the game increases tenfold.

Because that's what we all want to be, deep deep down inside. We want to be the matchwinner, the big hitter, the one who takes the game by storm. But we lack to courage to keep on swinging, ball after ball. We fear failure. We lack the Afridi nature.

And that's why we love Afridi, because he does what we don't dare to do. Screw club cricket, he does it at the international level, in grand finals, in front of thousands of screaming fans. He sees the ball, and he keeps on swinging. He goes for glory, regardless of the situation, and we cheer him on. Because when it comes off, we are on top of the world. His success gives us the belief that we too, can be a match winner. That if we had the guts to keep on swinging that we too could, one day, but the one who tears the bowling attacks apart, who breaks records, be the one who is labelled a 'match-winner'.

But we don't do it. And we don't like it.

And that's why when we turn on the TV to see Pakistan play, we wait for Afridi. And we watch, and we pray and hope that he comes off good.

Very Strong and Very True!! I am guessing this answers the question.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

It's one thing to be a fan of Afridi, but there are a lot of fans who in fact believe that he's a legend and that he better than the likes of even Sachin Tendulkar.[/url][/B]

what a load of rubbish. no one thinks that.

I read the first 2 pages of that thread you posted and almost every post praising him acknowledged it was his personality and style that made him more of a cult figure than any sort of all time great.

you might get the odd one that thinks he's an all time great, but do one off idiot opinions really justify this sort of rant? some indians think Sehwag is an all-time great.

get off your high horse, your rant is totally unjustified. You seem to have a problem with people merely liking a player. what a sad, bitter, little thread.

 

[Annoyingdevil]

Afridi is the Only reason why our Family watch Pakistan play.
He just fun to watch .
And to be honest with you, I think he is a legend...in his first innings he broked a world record by smashing the fastest hundred and the most sixes in a innings...I can remeber my uncle saying "this guy is just mad" lol.
everyone here in North West Pakistan love watching him.