Syed Mujtaba Ali’s Rasgolla featured a character, Jhandu Da, who was so enigmatic that no one could tell if he was coming or going. In cricket, that role perfectly fits Shahid Afridi.
There was a time when seeing Afridi on the field left people wondering—had he come out of retirement again, or was he about to retire once more? A dive into the archives of Afridi’s career reveals that this retirement legend retired five times, breaking and reversing those retirements four times before finally calling it quits in 2017.
Afridi wasn’t alone in his retirement escapades. His predecessors, Javed Miandad and Imran Khan, also flirted with retirement. Imran even came back at the request of then-President Zia-ul-Haq and led Pakistan to World Cup glory. Beyond Pakistan, cricketers like Carl Hooper, Kevin Pietersen, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Moeen Ali, and Javagal Srinath have all danced the retirement-revival waltz. Even Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal holds the record for the shortest retirement, reversing his decision within a single day.
So why all this talk about retirements? The spotlight now shifts to two Pakistani players—Imad Wasim and Mohammad Amir. The way they’ve been playing the retirement game makes it seem like they’re aiming to break Afridi’s record.
Amir first dipped his toes into the retirement pool in 2019, bidding farewell to Test cricket. By December 2020, he had announced his retirement from international cricket entirely. Mind you, Amir already had a lengthy break from the game when he served a ban and jail time for spot-fixing in 2010.
Imad’s first retirement came after the 2023 ODI World Cup. Both Amir and Imad returned to the fold in March this year to play in the T20 World Cup, only to once again step away from international cricket shortly afterward. Who knows when they’ll announce, “We want to play for Pakistan again!”
Many cricketers—from Sachin Tendulkar to Virat Kohli, Afridi to Amir—have said the same thing: “Cricket is my greatest love.” But what drives this love-hate cycle of walking away and then coming back?
If you look at the legendary love stories of Laila-Majnu, Shirin-Farhad, or Yusuf-Zulekha, you’ll find a pattern—familial resistance, rebellion, heartbreak, or misunderstanding strained the bond but never erased the love. Similarly, Javed Miandad retired in frustration after being dropped. Afridi often retired out of anger—be it at the PCB, coaches, or selectors. Amir’s story is similar, as is Imad’s. Yet, despite their frustrations, their love for the game remains intact.
It’s almost as if Afridi, Amir, and Imad live by the lines of Kabir Suman’s song Jaatishwar:
“Again and again, we come back, again and again, we leave,
But we’ll return once more to say, it’s only you we love.”
And here, it’s obvious who “you” refers to—cricket.
