Shahid Afridi reveals he wanted to quit international cricket when Shoaib Malik was made captain in 2009

Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has revealed that he wanted to give up international cricket owing to “politics” in the team after Shoaib Malik was appointed captain in 2009.

According to Shahid Afridi, although Pakistan had won the ICC T20 World Cup in 2009, the team spirit wasn’t at its best as there was too much going around.

Shahid Afridi elaborated in an interview to Samaa TV:

“I decided not to play cricket anymore. Shoaib Malik had become the captain and there was a lot of politics going on within the team.”

The former Pakistan captain also opened up on the controversial dressing room incident when fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar hit teammate Mohammed Asif with a bat. In his autobiography, Akhtar has blamed Afridi for his role as well.

Akhtar wrote in Controversially Yours:

“Afridi was aggravating the situation and I swung the bat at both of them. Afridi ducked, but Asif couldn’t get out of the way, the bat struck him on his thighs and he collapsed. I had lost it. I had never behaved like this, especially in the dressing room.”

However, Shahid Afridi clarified that Asif sided with him on a joke, and that was what angered Akhtar.

“Asif had sided with me in a joke which enraged Shoaib and all this happened. But Shoaib has a very beautiful heart,” the retired all-rounder explained.

Shahid Afridi is the only player to hit 4 consecutive sixes in every format of cricket Test : 6⃣6⃣6⃣6⃣ to Harbhajan ODI : 6⃣6⃣6⃣6⃣ to BhandaraT20 : 6⃣6⃣6⃣6⃣ to Sameen+DawsonT10 : 6⃣6⃣6⃣6⃣ to Wahab Riaz@SAfridiOfficial @TEAM_AFRIDI @dheetafridian__ @usmansatti476 pic.twitter.com/EcyxzjDq4z

— Imran Ali 🇵🇰 (@ImranAli__10) April 23, 2021

When I played under 14 and 18, there was only cricket in my life: Shahid Afridi

During the interaction, Shahid Afridi also recalled that, as a youngster, he used to sleep in his kit as cricket was everything for him. He stated:

“When I played under 14 and 18, there was only cricket in my all life. I used to sleep in my kit if I had a match the next day because I didn’t want to be late. There was no social media at that time, so people showed my pictures in Dawn and Jang to my father and said his son was indeed up to something good.”

#Stats Pakistan won 82% matches whenever Shahid Afridi took 3 or more wickets or scored 50 or more runs.He has done this 79 times in Odi cricket and Pakistan won 65 matches, A perfect game changer and match winner one of all time best from Pakistan cricket. #BoomBoom #Legend pic.twitter.com/UekvlEJDtG

— Team Shahid Khan Afridi (@TEAM_ShahidKhan) April 27, 2021

Shahid Afridi played 27 Tests, 398 ODIs and 99 T20Is for Pakistan from 1996 to 2018, scoring over 11000 runs across formats and claiming 541 wickets. He held the record for the fastest ODI hundred (37 balls) before it was broken by New Zealand’s Corey Anderson (36 balls). South Africa’s AB de Villiers (31 balls) holds the current record.