Shahid Afridi believes his international career is already over

Pakistani legend Shahid Afridi has come to the twilight of his career and his international career is as good as over though he hasn’t announced his official retirement yet. At the end of yet another fruitful year, Afridi looked back and recalled some of his best and worst moments of the last 12 months.

While he wasn’t impressed with his performances as a cricketer but he was extremely happy with the progress of his ambitions of charity work. “I agree that cricketing wise the year wasn’t good for me, I couldn’t achieve what I wanted towards the end of my career as a cricketer, but for my charity work 2016 was extraordinary,” Afridi was quoted as saying geo.tv.

The swashbuckling all-rounder just like the previous years remained in the news in 2016 as well, mostly for his exploits and controversial comments off the field. His love-hate relationship with the journalist was evident yet again as Afridi taunted a journalist by saying “mujhe aap say aisay ghatiya sawal ki hee umeed thee” (I was expecting such a shoddy question from you).

The media bashed him for his outburst but the matter was later settled the PCB. A majority of the year went about making retirement plans for Afridi but he was still undecided and uncertain on his career. Afridi wanted to send a trend in Pakistan cricket that all the players who have served for their nation must be given a proper farewell.

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He was bashed by media, former cricketers and fellow mates but Afridi remained defiant. “I wanted to set a trend, a new trend where players get a respectable farewell by PCB, but it didn’t happen, I am sad that I couldn’t get it done,” Afridi said.

This was not the only thing which got Afridi into trouble. His statement of getting more love from spectators of India created an outrage in his country and people bashed him on interviews and social networking sites. Afridi felt his statement was blown out of proportion and was taken out of context.

If all these were not enough, Afridi faced yet another controversial moment towards the end of the year when former Pakistan national coach and captain accused Afridi of match fixing. Javed’s statement that “Afridi has sold country’s matches” came in response to Afridi’s comment that “Javed Bhai should think about things beyond making money.” The banter turned ugly as statements came one after the other but eventually the matter was settled by mutual friends of Afridi and Miandad and they decided for a respectful conclusion to the controversy.

“This was unnecessary, and unwanted thing to happen. I never wanted any such incident”, Afridi said. Another incident which created controversy was when Afridi told to BBC that there was special talent coming up for Pakistan during the Test series in England. Though it was not the first time cricketers has accused the Pakistan team of being talentless but as it was Afridi the matter again created a controversy. “I said what I felt, and I insist that we need to change the system and there was nothing wrong in it,” Afridi had said.

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Former Cricketers and critics believe that Afridi’s international career is already over and Afridi too is of the same views. “Yes, I have already played my last international game, which I played against Australia during the World T20, 2016,” Afridi said. Despite his bleak chances of playing for Pakistan again, he continued to impress in the T20 tournaments and reminded every one of his credentials in the recently concluded Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

Afridi’s present aim is to continue serving for his country but this time in charity work. “I will continue to serve my country like I did from 1996 to 2016. After Cricket, I will do charity work for the country,” he said.

Afridi’s organisation ‘Shahid Afridi Organisation” has already started working in different parts of the world and Afridi was overjoyed with the progress of his charity work in 2016. “We achieved so many goals for SAF during the year 2016, some landmark projects were launched and some were completed as well,” Afridi concluded.