Shahid Afridi’s nephew Irfan set to scale greater heights

The cricketing world is pretty aware of former Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi, who entertained the crowd with his unflinching style of play on the cricket pitch. However, his heydays are a thing of the past. In the meantime, his nephew Irfan Afridi has set greater goals for the future. He made his international debut for Uganda in their match against Qatar in September 2016.

Ever since he has carved a reputation as one of his team’s most devastating cricketers. Irfan was born in Karachi on March 24, 1985, and he moved to Uganda only in the early part of 2013 at the age of 28. Surprisingly, prior to shifting countries, the player didn’t even play cricket with the hard ball. Recently, the leg-break bowler spoke about how his journey in the cricketing field started.

Tornado CC marked the start

“The whole time in Karachi, I didn’t play hard ball. Just tape ball, tennis ball. My uncle wanted to start a business in Uganda so that’s why he told me to go to Uganda. My uncle sent me here for business. We started a business for import and exporting cars. So from there, I started my cricket. I never played hard ball in my life before. I started in Uganda,” Afridi was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo.

After coming to work with his uncle Mushtaq, former Uganda fast bowler Asadu Seiga became friendly with him and also invited him to come and play a leather ball match for Seiga’s club Tornado CC. That was the only game, he played for that particular club, which also marked the beginning of his cricket career. He also thanked his friend for pushing him to work harder in order to get into the national team.

“I played one game for his club. From there I started my career. When I played the first game, from there they saw me. My friend Asadu told me, ‘You can play hard ball. So why are you not trying?’ So from there I started to play. Then I tried to come into the national team.

He was the one who brought me in. Every time he was telling me, ‘Afridi do that. Push yourself, work hard. You will get a chance. I want to see you in a yellow national-team jersey for Uganda.’ So he helped me a lot,” Irfan added.

Massive contributions thus far

Afridi has helped Uganda in a big way in recent times. At World Cricket League (WCL) Division 4 back in May, he became the highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 15 wickets to help his team win the championship. Thereafter, he picked up 13 wickets, also the event highest, in the ICC World T20 Africa T20 Region B Qualifier and helped Uganda qualify to the next round.

His spells have been stupendous to such an extent that they have drawn appreciations from Roger Mukasa, the Uganda captain, who has hailed for the variations he has shown in the matches. Afridi is also capable of wielding magic with the bat in hand. At 2017 World Cricket League (WCL) Division 3 in Uganda, he smashed a 71-ball 108 against Malaysia. Moreover, he churned out a knock of 51 off 17 balls against Vanuata to drag his team out of a precarious position.

Shahid Afridi was a true entertainer and his nephew Irfan doesn’t seem far behind from him, bowling leg-breaks and displaying a fearless approach while batting.

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