Umar Gul versus Shoaib Akhtar - Part 1
The cricketing world has been blessed by some truly amazing bowling partnerships in its history. The West Indies had http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746
had Brett Lee and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Brett-Lee-c48419 is still playing the game.
For Pakistan, it has been a tough task of trying to find a pair of bowlers capable of matching their legendary bowling partnerships of the past. Rana Naveed and Muhammad Sami showed promise but they lacked consistency, with the more promising prospects of
Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Amir receiving lengthy bans for their involvement in spot fixing.
The Pakistan cricket team has always been known for its unrivalled bowling. The issue has never been the lack of talent emerging on to the international stage, but rather the nurturing and development of it. Two bowlers who had talent in abundance and have
been the pick of the Pakistani bowlers though are the Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akhtar and the disciplined, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Umar-Gul-c94604.
Not paired as regularly as they perhaps should have been due to various on field as well as off field issues, they are nonetheless an interesting matchup.
Shoaib Akhtar is a celebrity in the world of cricket, who along with Shahid Afridi may very well be the only two players with a ‘Superstar’ status in their side. Also known as one of the fastest bowlers in the game, Akhtar’s lengthy run up often induced
fear in the batsman unfortunate enough to find themselves on the crease.
Bursting on to the scene against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 in his hometown of Rawalpindi in 1997, he only managed to take two wickets. It was the start of his rise to international stardom and in March during the following year, he made his International debut against
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Waqar-Younis-Maitla-c96193, who passed on years of wisdom to him, his performances rose steadily.
It was not long before he put in match winning performances with the bowl and became a staunch fan favourite. Things, however, did start to go wrong for him not long into his career. His body soon began showing signs of wear and tear due to his aggressive
run up and high energy bowling style.
Fitness became an issue the bowler had to deal with on a regular basis, with a string of injuries resulting in him not being able to keep his bowling performances up to the mark. The superstar status seemed to be getting to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shoaib-Akhtar-c90080 as he gained a reputation
of being arrogant and not interacting much with his fellow team-mates. The term ‘team player’ was not something mentioned when one was asked to describe the bowler’s relationship with his side. There was also a well publicised confrontation between him and
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 in the Pakistani dressing room.
It was just one of a list of disciplinary issues the bowler faced. He was banned by the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board on one occasion, fined the other time, he also embroiled in a drug scandal and there was also an instance where he threatened to sue the PCB himself.
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