CELEBRITY INTERVIEW

SHAHID AFRIDI
By TOOBA TARIQ

Full Name: Sahibzada

Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi
Birth Date: 1 March 1980
Birth Place: Khyber Agency,
FATA, Pakistan
Nickname: Boom Boom, Afridi,
Lala
Spouse: Nadia
Children: Aqsa, Ansha, Ajwa,
Asmara
Favourite Food: Sindhi Biryani
Favourite Place: Queenstown,
Newzeland
Favourite Sports: Cricket, Golf,
Snooker
Ideal: Imran Khan
No-one in world cricket
plays quite like Shahid
Afridi. Not Flintoff, not Pietersen, not Jayasuriya, not even
Gilchrist. His strike-rate is higher than any batsman in cricket history; his slightly pigeon-toed walk
to the wicket a guarantee of fireworks. All the pundits say it and it’s true: Boom Boom Afridi only
knows how to play one way. The first time he batted in international cricket, aged 16, he hit a
century off 37 balls, a world record that still stands. The decade since that debut is littered with
similar feats.

Q: How did you start playing cricket?

A: In my family, no-one likes sport. In the tribe, in the Khyber agency, no-
one’s interested in cricket. They belong to the army or do business. One
of my uncles is in the army: he told my elder brother, Tariq, to play cricket
because he had talent. He played a lot of first-class cricket but had to give
up because of an elbow injury. I was very keen to play cricket; I didn’t like
studying. We lived in the same lane in Karachi as Haroon Rashid, so the
whole street loved cricket and there were a lot of cricketers there. We
played a lot of cricket in the street and I was the youngest guy to play club
cricket there – I was 12 or 13 – and the standard was very good. I was the
youngest in all the clubs. And the first time Haroon Rashid saw me he
said, “You’re a very talented guy, just keep playing cricket”.

Q: What’s the biggest six you’ve ever hit?

A: I’ve hit alot of big sixes but I hit one against Brett Lee that I can’t forget. I was on the front foot and he was bowling 145-
 148 in Sydney, he had the fielder back at long-off and the ball
just flew flat over the ground and over the boundary for six. It
just happened automatically. After that six, Hayden came to
me
and said, “ I want your bat”.

Q: Do you find that the constant crowd

anticipation for you to hit every ball for 6 affects
the way you bat? How do you counter act this?
Does crowd pressure makes you to hit sixes
every ball?
A: It’s very difficult for me because the plans I have in my
head before I go out to bat get forgotten, when I go out there it’s like hitting a wall of sound and I forget whatever we had
discussed minutes earlier in the dressing room.

Q: What has been your best performance with

the bat in any form of cricket?
A: The 141 runs scored in Chennai vs India is an innings
that I remembered vividly to this day.

Q: What would Shahid Afridi be doing today if

he had never become a cricketer?
A: If I didn’t play international cricket, I would have joined
the army.

Q: Who were your cricketing heroes both

Pakistanis and Non-Pakistanis?
A: Imran Khan was my ideal. Other than him I enjoyed
watching Mark Waugh, Lara, Sachin and Inzi bhai.

Q: Does you break your 37-ball century record?

A: No I don’t think I could break it again but then
records are there to be broken.

Q: Do you have any message for your huge fan base?

A: The only thing I would say to my fans is always try to

understand and educate yourselves on the reason why
ALLAH has given you life, do that part first and then enjoy
the rest of your life and chill out.
CELEBRITY INTERVIEW