‘Controversially Yours’. There couldn’t have been a more apt title to the autobiography of Shoaib Akhtar, arguably the most controversial cricketer of modern times. Naturally, the audience came to the book launch hoping for many more skeletons to tumble out of the former fast bowler’s closet, especially with provoking excerpts like “Tendulkar was scared to face me” already doing the rounds.
That was, however, not to be. Instead, it was a defensive Shoaib on view. The Rawalpindi Express took pains to put to rest the controversies the book could generate. The first issue he tried to play down was the one about Tendulkar. The book says, “We managed to psychologically browbeat him. We bounced the ball at him and were able to unnerve him. I returned to the dressing room that first day with the knowledge that Sachin was not comfortable facing the fast and rising ball. And he was distinctly uncomfortable against me.”
Shoaib, however, clarified that his observation weren’t general in nature. “He was suffering from tennis elbow and we
