‘I thought this guy is dead’: Shoaib Akhtar recalls hitting a batsman in county cricket

Former Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar is recognized for making controversial statements however one which nobody can take away from him is the truth that he was an specific tempo bowler and arguably the quickest of all of them in modern-day cricket.

Recently throughout a dialog with Pakistani presenter Sawera Pasha on her Youtube present Cric Cast, Akhtar opened up about how he felt when his specific tempo deliveries would hit batsmen.

“In first class cricket when I played for English county Worcestershire, I hit quite a few batsmen. And then it seemed like ‘Oh God I have done something wrong’. I could never understand why I was so mean.

Also Read | ‘MS firmly told Raina to go back’: RP Singh recalls Dhoni losing his cool

“One incident that I remember is with Matthew Maynard of Glamorgan. It was dull in the evening and the light was not great so I told him, ‘let’s go off because my pace is not comfortable to face at this time. So if you want we can go off’.

“But he said ‘let’s face you’. So I went around the wicket and bowled a fast bouncer. It wasn’t very dark but I felt it would be difficult to face my pace. The ball hit him on the face and he fell on the wickets. I thought ‘this guy is dead’.

“He fell on the wickets, got out and was in a lot of pain. So yeah, every time I hit someone I felt bad,” Akhtar mentioned recalling his days in English County cricket scene.

Shoaib Akhtar performed 46 Tests, 163 ODIs and 15 T20Is for Pakistan and picked up greater than 400 wickets throughout all codecs.