Controversially Yours – I tampered but never fixed

Shoaib Akhtar makes sensational claims in his book

Rawalpindi Express is out of control once again. Shoaib Akhtar has made startling revelations in his autobiography ‘Controversially Yours’. The negative remarks about Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Akram and Shah Rukh Khan will certainly ignite hostile responses, apart from turning his book into a hot cake.

In the autobiography, the exccerpts of which have been released to the media, he described his life as a cricketer and beyond.  It gives a detailed account of his background, his struggles in life and his career marred by injury and indiscipline. A kid who was born with a flat foot, developed whooping cough in his childhood, and when he played cricket he suffered the pain of a sore knee for most of his career.

In his book, soon to make headlines, he describes lack of a father figure – like Imran Khan in 80s – in the team which could have nurtured the amazing talent coming through in the nineties, turning it into world beaters. A team that was known by its infighting, match-fixing and other controversies massively under achieved despite having extra-ordinary cricketers. 
 
In his book he says Indian batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are not match winners. He terms Dravid as a better batsman than the maestro. "I think players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid weren't exactly match winners to start with, nor did they know the art of finishing the game", the book reads.

At one point he describes an incident where Tendulkar chickened out because he (Akhtar) was bowling a lethal spell. He says: "I bowled a particularly fast ball which he, to my amazement didn't even touch. He walked away! That was the first time I saw him walk away from me-that, too, on the slow track at Faisalabad."

Taking a dig at IPL, he criticizes former IPL commissioner Lalit Mody and Shah Rukh K terming them as ‘cheaters’. "Shahrukh and I talked about my not being happy with the money settled on me. Shahrukh and Modi got me to agree. I should have never listened to Modi and Shahrukh."

He did not spare Wasim Akram whom he blamed for destroying his career as his book says: "Wasim Akram threatened to walk out with half the team if I was included in the team. General Tauqir Zia backed Shoaib against Wasim." According to him, Akram was probably against blooding youngsters. 

Shoaib does not seem to be impressed with the role Shoaib Malik played. "Shoaib Malik doesn't deserve to be captain and was made captain because he was a stooge of the PCB Chief Naseem Ashraf," he said. According to him Shahid Afridi deserved to be the captain in 2007 but Malik was chosen instead.

He blames PCB for all the evils prevailing in Pakistan cricket during the days he played. He confessed to have made many mistakes, but insists he was targeted and made scapegoat almost every time, on the pretext of maintaining discipline.

He admitted to have done ball-tampering but denied in strong words his involvement in match or spot-fixing. He said: "Everyone tampers with the ball. I did so too. Tampering should be legalised."
According to him, Amir and Asif were in the company of bad people. He said though he was from a humble back-ground but he treasured the honour of playing for Pakistan, hence he could not even think of indulging in spot-fixing. He describes beating a couple of guys who had approached him for that very purpose.

Formerr president Pervez Musharraf, Javed Miandad and Shane Warne have also come under the scanner in the book which is to be launched tonight in India. He also terms Ireland better than Bangladesh and West Indies who both do not deserve the Test status. 

More to follow ...