Shahid Afridi has raised the possibility that the World Twenty20 may not be his last international hurrah. Afridi will lead Pakistan's campaign in India next month and last year had said it would be his final challenge in international cricket.
He retired from 50-over cricket after last year’s World Cup and soon after said that he was seeking a “happy ending” to a 20-year international career at the World Twenty20.
But speaking to The National on the day of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) final in Dubai, Afridi, unprompted, said he was under growing pressure from friends and associates to continue playing after the event.
“I have come to a point in my life where before I leave this [World Twenty20] is a very big challenge for me,” he said.
“I should also take the opportunity to reveal that for a while now there is a lot of pressure from my family, a lot of pressure from my friends including my elders who say there is no need for me to retire from Twenty20. That is a huge pressure.”
He did not elaborate on the nature of this pressure.
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In an interview with The National a few days before the PSL began, Afridi had spoken of his desire to continue playing domestic T20 leagues around the world once he left the international stage.
There seems to have been a shift in that situation now, though a weary Afridi stressed that it was only a consideration for the moment. It has been spurred, in part it appears, by Pakistan’s ongoing troubles in the format.
Asked specifically whether he was reversing his earlier decision, he said: “I’m not saying that. I am saying there is a lot of pressure on me that I shouldn’t retire from T20s. That you can play on, and as such there is no real talent coming through in Pakistan whose place I am taking. For now, in truth, I am focusing only on the World Twenty20. That is a huge challenge for me.
“After it [the World Twenty20] ... First I want to see where Pakistan stand. [Then] whether I am capable of taking the team forward on the back of my performances. I want to check where I am standing myself,” Afridi said.
Afridi is a World Twenty20 winner, having helped Pakistan win the title in 2009, making half-centuries in the semi-final and final. He has played in all five editions so far and is both the most-capped T20 international and its leading wicket-taker.
To Afridi-watchers the news may not come as a complete shock. In 2006, he retired from Test cricket, only to return for one Test in 2010 and then retire again immediately after it.
In 2011, after a dispute with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) he retired in protest from international cricket, only to eventually “withdraw” the retirement after a leadership change in the board.
In recent weeks, Afridi has publicly and often stridently questioned his team’s performances, at least with greater openness than in the past. When he spoke before the PSL, for instance, he said he was worried about teammates continuing to repeat mistakes.
"The guys in the side have been playing for quite a while now so I think it is time, they now need to deliver," he told The National then. "They are at that stage now, where if you've been playing for so long but are still inconsistent, then it is a big worry.
“In this format the team that makes the least mistakes is the one that survives. The boys are repeating those mistakes, they are not learning from mistakes. So it is a worry.”
Afridi’s own form has only recently swung around, after a poor recent run – in eight Twenty20s after he retired from ODIs last year, he took just two wickets, reaching double figures with the bat twice.
He started contributing with both bat and ball when England toured the UAE earlier this season, but it has not helped arrest a slide in the team’s performances: under him Pakistan have lost five of their last six Twenty20s.
And though he has led Pakistan in more Twenty20s than any other, he is also the only captain of the six they have had in the format to possess a losing record (16 wins to 18 losses).
More recently he led a vibrant Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL, taking them to within one run of a place in the final. He did not set the league alight with his performances, barring one match in which he took 5-7 – that haul eventually contributed half his entire wickets in 10 matches.
And though he is days away from officially turning 36, he insists he is in shape to continue. “As far as playing goes my fitness is zabardast [great]. Energy is also there. I can play cricket. But I will have a clearer idea after the World Twenty20,” Afridi said.
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