This article first appeared on cricket-match-special.com on the 1st of February 2010.
Pakistan cricket captain Shahid Afridi shocked the cricket world today when he admitted he was fighting a lifelong battle with cricket ball addiction. Afridi broke down during the post-match interview of today's loss to Australia when he was shown footage of himself taking several bites into the ball between deliveries.
"I thought I had this addiction beat", said Afridi, "but the tense match situation got to me and I cracked. Even though I knew that there were about 30 cameras on me and several hundred million people watching at home I thought I could get away with a nibble or two."
Afridi revealed that in his early career he was getting through 2 Dukes and 3 Kookaburra balls a day and that his preferred method of coping when batting was to hit the ball as far away from himself as possible. In more recent times he has instead preferred to get out early and avoid temptation completely.
However, Afridi isn't the only cricketer to have suffered from this condition. Former England skipper Michael Atherton revealed that he was once so addicted to cricket balls that he had to rub dirt into them to make them less appetising.
"I thought I had this addiction beat", said Afridi, "but the tense match situation got to me and I cracked. Even though I knew that there were about 30 cameras on me and several hundred million people watching at home I thought I could get away with a nibble or two."
Afridi revealed that in his early career he was getting through 2 Dukes and 3 Kookaburra balls a day and that his preferred method of coping when batting was to hit the ball as far away from himself as possible. In more recent times he has instead preferred to get out early and avoid temptation completely.
However, Afridi isn't the only cricketer to have suffered from this condition. Former England skipper Michael Atherton revealed that he was once so addicted to cricket balls that he had to rub dirt into them to make them less appetising.
No comments:
Post a Comment