I think of a particular gentleman who must be going crazy screaming ‘LALA LALA’ on a Whatsapp cricket group, calling him the savior of Pakistan. I contemplate picking up my phone and talking some cricket. But I am a little too despondent to engage on the group. I resist the temptation.
My wife suggests we should put on a movie; it was Saturday evening after all. Sure, I say, just as soon as Afridi goes back to the pavilion. You know it won’t be too long, I assure her. How long will Afridi last anyway? Three balls, she says. I laugh; he will play 27 balls today, I predict. Even after coming to know him so well over the years, I am still naïve it seems.
When he plays his first ball, I get that funny feeling I would get when he was 19 years younger. I get it almost every time he comes to bat. When Afridi is batting, you never change the TV channel. You don’t go to the restroom, you don’t move, you don’t miss a ball. In recent years, there has been a dearth of such stars in Pakistan. Where there were many, there remain fewer now with each passing year.
Pakistan require 133 runs at a Rate of 10.5 per over. With half the team in the dugout, it is almost lost. The light in my lounge becomes dimmer as I think about a client I met yesterday.
"Do you watch cricket?" I inquired of him. "Not anymore, not really," he replied. Who is playing? He asked.
"Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Pakistan has won the first of the two T20 games," I informed him.
"It is simple, Sri Lanka will win. In cricket that’s the way it goes, this is what happens," said my client with complete certainty.
I smiled and kept quiet. I knew further conversation on the subject was futile.
Afridi begins his innings out of character, with some caution. But you know there is only so much patience he can exercise, he has thrived on being the epitome of a Pakistani way of doing things; fast and without too much planning.
He has a reputation to maintain, he is answerable to his people. If he plays 27 balls, he is sure to get a fifty. I mull over the idea like I have for the previous 506 times.
For more detail Betting on Afridi
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