Why Shoaib Akhtar didn’t want to be Sachin Tendulkar’s opponent in Cricket All-Stars series

Arch-rivals for years, Akhtar finds himself in Tendulkar’s team in the Cricket All-Stars T20 — a series featuring retired cricketers starting on Saturday.

In February 1999, at a jam-packed Eden Gardens, Shoaib Akhtar shot to fame when he cleaned-up Sachin Tendulkar for a first-ball duck with a vicious full-length ball. In the second innings it was Tendulkar’s collision with Akhtar that resulted in former’s run out and a crowd eruption at Eden Gardens. Since then Akhtar and Tendulkar have shared an interesting relationship. Their duel in World Cup 2003 tops all lists where Tendulkar was severe on Akhtar but the latter dismissed him two runs short of a ton.

For a long time, Tendulkar was the best batsman in the world and Akhtar the fastest bowler, and their rivalry was one of the most anticipated ones in cricket. While Tendulkar have won most battles, Akhtar had written in his autobiography Controversially Yours, “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 a game”. He went on to mention that Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting and Brian Lara were better at that. Earlier this year, however in a change of heart, Akhtar called him a “brute force” and compared him to boxing legend “Muhammad Ali”.

However, now Akhtar finds himself in Tendulkar’s team in the Cricket All-Stars T20 — a series featuring retired cricketers starting on Saturday. Earlier he had expressed his willingness to be Sachin’s Blasters and when he got his wish granted, he reasoned out why he wanted to be in the Master Blaster’s side.

Talking to PTI, Akhtar said, “Thank God for that, that I am playing for Sachin and Sachin is playing for me. I am done bowling against him. I have been bowling against him for last 15 years and I was not looking forward to bowling against him, to be honest.” Reasoning out, he mentioned that Tendulkar is “the greatest player history has ever seen”. He added, “Tendulkar is a brutal force, he is the greatest player history has ever seen. I also never wanted to have a kind of India-Pakistan thing once again.”

Akhtar, who retired in 2011, two years before Tendulkar, described the batting legend as a “great friend” and also spoke about his excitement to play under him. It seems all is well between the arch-rivals, who for the first time are in the same camp, chalking out strategy to get better of the opponent side that’s led by spin-king Shane Warne. Read more on Cricket All-Stars T20