KEY POINTS:
The image of Shoaib Akhtar that should have endured was fashioned on a warm Manchester afternoon in 1999. He strode back to his mark, swept back his mane of dark hair and roared in, arms flailing, back arched.
The ball was released at 148km/h, swung late, pitched later
and uprooted Stephen Fleming's off stump. Pakistan were on their way to the World Cup final, propelled by the new 23-year-old fast bowler, hailed already as the Rawalpindi Express.
Akhtar had the world at his feet; a raw natural talent, movie star looks, a vivid demeanour and thus the capacity to thrill audiences anywhere. That ball to Fleming embodied it all.
In the years that followed, sadly, the image was tarnished. It became grubby and was replaced, or at least accompanied, by something altogether less alluring.
Wherever Akhtar went, whatever he did, trouble was nearby. He was forgiven much, indeed almost everything for what he could bring on to a cricket field.
Nothing in the game - not a Brian Lara batting or a Shane Warne bowling - can quite match watching a genuine speed merchant in full flow and Akhtar's flow was fuller and faster than anybody's.
But finally, inevitably, his international career reached a sad, seemingly inevitable conclusion when Akhtar was banned for five years by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) last week.
Pending an appeal, this seems to be it for him as an international.
If the appeal fails, he will be 37 by the time he is able to resume his career with Pakistan, not an age notable for the pomp of fast bowlers.
The PCB seem at last to have had enough. "The board has lost confidence in Shoaib Akhtar and therefore felt that his presence in the field was damaging to the Pakistan team, for Pakistan players and for the image of Pakistan cricket," said the PCB chairman, Nasim Ashraf in announcing the suspension.
"The committee has recommended a five-year ban. He will be ineligible to play in Pakistan or for Pakistan anywhere in the world. It is a sad day for me and for Shoaib Akhtar. He is such a talented player."
A talented player with a mercurial personality - which may be demonstrated later this month. The punishment did not extend to Shoaib playing for other teams outside Pakistan and he was been signed for US$425,000 (NZ$540,000) to represent Kolkata in the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, the IPL have now ruled that Akhtar can not play for them until his ban is done.
The charge sheet is long, yet what finally brought him down was a relatively trifling misdemeanour. Akhtar berated the PCB in print for offering him a retainer instead of a central contract and was charged with publicly criticising them.
The PCB are now taking him to court, alleging defamation.
In the past nine years, in no particular order, he has been accused (and cleared) of chucking, convicted of taking a performance-enhancing drug and hitting fellow fast bowler Mohammad Asif with a cricket bat, banned for ball tampering, and using obscene and offensive language. He also had a logo on his bat that was adjudged too large.
The chucking charge was thrown out when his arm was found to be hyperextended, and though to the naked eye it still looked decidedly impure, you were always caught up in the majesty of the moment.
For the drugs offence he was sent home from the 2006 Champions Trophy though the ban was later risibly lifted. For striking he was dismissed from the World Twenty20 last year, fined 3.4 million rupees (NZ$69,000) and banned for 13 matches. He was on a cricketing parole of sorts when he opened his mouth last month.
At various times in between, he has been lacklustre and at odds with captains and coaches. All could see his worth, but he sent them into despair. When Bob Woolmer was Pakistan's coach he reckoned he could deal with Akhtar but the undesirable hangers-on - "gangsters" Woolmer called them - proved too much.
He spent an inordinate time trying to become the first fast bowler to reach 100m/h (160km/h), which he achieved at Cape Town in the 2003 World Cup. But did it really matter?
There should and could have been considerably more than 46 test matches and 138 one-day internationals. A record of 178 wickets at 25.70 in the former and 219 at 23.20 with a strike rate under 30 in the latter hardly constitute failure.
Perhaps his finest series was against England in late 2005. He took 17 wickets in three matches, including five in the last innings of the rubber, and was utterly compelling and incisive throughout.
It was characteristic of Akhtar that upon his suspension he could see no wrong in anything he had done.
"Ask the captain, ask coach Geoff Lawson and they would vouch for me. I had played with high fever on the India tour last year which proved my commitment," he said. "I bowl fast so am prone to injuries but I have given my heart, body and soul to this team. I know some vested interest did not want me to be part of the team but I will be back."
He had hoped that an apology for his latest outburst against the board would suffice. But he was wrong.
Lawson may still want him back in the side. There was plenty of evidence last year that he still had it, but if he was not a divisive influence around the team he was never a unifying one either.
Teams can put up with a lot from a man who takes five wickets and puts the fear of Allah into the opposing team but Akhtar never got it.
He appeared to assume that excesses could merely be followed by apologies and then the show could go on. Now the show might have stopped for good.
- INDEPENDENT
