Pakistan cricket's wise heads made him one-day captain for the Australia tour last winter, but by the time they left in February Afridi had made the most astonishing attempt at ball-tampering most of us have seen, biting the ball in a one-day international in Perth. He was banned for two Twenty20 internationals. Those with longer memories tut-tutted and recalled his pitch-scuffing antics at Faisalabad's Iqbal Stadium in 2005, when, after bashing 92 from 85 balls, he tried to improve his team's chances of victory against England by replicating Michael Jackson's moonwalk on a spinner's length.
For all his faults, Afridi has never been shy of holding up his hand when he has stuffed up. Even those left slack-jawed by the irresponsibility of his batting during the Lord's Test defeat against Australia in July warmed to him after the game, when he admitted he was not cut out for the demands of the five-day game.
In retrospect, though, maybe there was more at work than ill-fitting whites. Pakistan's Express Tribune reported on Monday that Afridi had had doubts about the Majeed brothers' activities even before the News of the World's revelations. "Afridi always doubted Mazhar and his brother Azhar Majeed, and that's why he strictly prohibited his entry in the team hotel and asked all the fellow players to stay away from them," a team official told the paper, adding that it was only once Afridi returned home that contact was reestablished.
In a video leaked after the tour of Australia, in which Pakistan lost every single game in all three formats, Afridi was also suspicious of some in the squad. "As far as the fielding is concerned, we do very well in the practice sessions but we have a few players who perform well with the bat and then do not concentrate while fielding," he said. When the inquiry committee then asked if he thought any player deliberately tried to lose a match, he replied: "I have heard from others that such things exist but I do not know of any such player myself."
He has scored as many centuries (five) as Andrew Flintoff in 52 fewer Tests and taken 109 more one-day wickets than England's talismanic all-rounder, yet Afridi's volatile temperament has meant that he could never be considered one of the game's elite performers. Like the big gamblers who either clean up or go bust, there is no middle path with Afridi.
That was best illustrated in the World Twenty20 tournaments of 2007 and 2009. In the first, he was player of the competition, starring with bat and ball, but the sight of Irfan Pathan (who received, at the receiving end of many an Afridi sledge on the tour of Pakistan in 2006) at the top of the bowling mark appeared to unhinge him in the final against India. The first-ball dismissal was crucial in a nail-bitingly close game. Two years later, in England, his form with the bat was so dismal there was talk of his being dumped from the side. But Younis Khan – who, like Afridi, is a Pathan, a people from northern Pakistan – kept faith and was rewarded with two spellbinding performances in the semi-final and final, as South Africa and Sri Lanka were swept aside.
Not since Imran Khan and the two Ws, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, has a Pakistan cricketer been so adored. During the World Twenty20 last summer, chants of "Afridi, Afridi" were as common as "Pakistan zindabad", and he has admitted to being affected by the adulation. "While in the dressing room, I try to remain calm and think about building my innings," he said in a TV interview a few years ago. "But when I go out there, it's like hitting a wall of sound and I forget whatever we had discussed minutes earlier. I just try and smash every ball."
The 30-year-old, initially a fast bowler who so idolised Imran he switched to spin because "people told me I was chucking the ball", was born in the Khyber Agency. "My tribe is from the northern areas," he told Spin Cricket last year. "There's no law there, no governmental law, it's our own rules. It's very close to Afghanistan. In the tribe, in the Khyber Agency, no one's interested in cricket. They belong to the army or do business. In my village 12, 13-year-old guys are always walking about with guns." Had Afridi not become the first member of his tribe to play first-class cricket he, too, would have joined the army.
Nearly two decades ago, another Pathan, Imran, led Pakistan cricket to its finest hour. Last year, Younis led them to a second world title. Now, Afridi has the most arduous task of all, to lead a team from darkness without knowing where the light is.
