Shahid Afridi is a former captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. An all-rounder, Afridi was a right-handed leg spinner and a right-handed batsman. He retired from international cricket in 2017. Afridi established the Shahid Afridi Foundation, which aims to provide healthcare and education facilities in Pakistan, in 2014. WAJAHAT S. Khan produces and corresponds from Pakistan for Vice News, The Times and India Today. He has reported from fifteen countries covering conflict, diplomacy, politics and media for digital, cable and networks. Before serving as NBC's last bureau chief in Kabul, Afghanistan, Khan also launched Pakistan's first independent Urdu and English cable networks and produced the first broadcast series from across the border in India. He is a 2011 Harvard Shorenstein Fellow, a 2012 Asia Society Young Global Leader, and landed Pakistan's only Emmy nomination for breaking news in 2015, the year he met Shahid Afridi. Khan last bowled right-arm fast-medium for the Frere House of his Karachi Grammar School with an ageing sniper's accuracy. He can't handle spin, both on and off the field.
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">In 1996, as a teenager, Shahid Afridi shot to fame after hammering the fastest ODI century at the time. Counted among the world’s greatest all-rounders, Afridi still holds the distinction of having hit the most number of sixes in the history of ODI cricket.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">In a career as unpredictable as his leg-break googlies and ‘boom-boom’ power hitting, Afridi has been many things – the lost kid focused on pulling his parents out of poverty, the desperate captain trying not to snitch on his corrupt teammates, the gallant Pashtun centurion staring down a hostile Indian crowd, and the bad boy at the centre of a ball-tampering scandal. In <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px;">Game Changer</em>, Afridi tells his life story just the way he batted – instinctively, candidly and with no holds barred.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">The riveting memoir of one of modern cricket’s most controversial and accomplished practitioners, this is a must-read not only for his legion of fans but also for anyone interested in world cricket.</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">‘As brave as a warrior … Afridi is one of the strongest men I’ve known.’</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Wasim Akram</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">‘When runs were needed and big shots required, and when his bat was responding, Shahid Afridi could be the most dangerous player.’</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Sachin Tendulkar</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">‘Shahid Afridi’s competitiveness, his never-say-die attitude, his spirit, his energy: all so impressive. A great servant to cricket and to his country.’</p><p style="margin: 6px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Sir Vivian Richards</p>
