End of the road for Rawalpindi Express

Like so many sports stars the career of Shoaib Akhtar has always elicited diverse and vigorous debate.

The so-called Rawalpindi Express, who burst on to the scene in the 1999 Cricket World Cup with his long, hurtling run-up and amazing speed, his trademark long hair blowing in the breeze, has never been far from controversy.

It looks as if the Pakistan icon has reached the end of his career after the Pakistan Cricket Board this week slammed him with a five-year ban on disciplinary grounds.

It is a ban which has not surprised many and yet two former Pakistan captains, Imraan Khan and Javed Miandad, on Wednesday sprang to his defence, saying it was totally unacceptable and a decision which has ended his career.

While looking up some background on Akhtar, who has made many appearances in South Africa, I came across an article written by Osman Samiuddin, who is the Pakistan editor of Cricinfo, that marvellous Internet cricket site, which should be a must for all cricket fans.

Obviously no Akhtar fan, Samiuddin sums up his feelings like this: "But if we play it straight, briefly if ill-advisedly, and believe that he is forever gone, what does Shoaib leave behind? Nothing really.

No legacy; only a blighted, wasted career and a warning to future players on what not to become, and to future administrations on how not to deal with a player.

"Little needs to be said about his bowling, though perhaps misquoting Marlon Brando from On the Waterfront does it best: he coulda been somebody, he coulda been a great instead, he's just a headline. Forty-six Tests in 11 years is pitiful and barely a basis on which to judge a player. Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar were once spoken of together in the same sentence; today they may not share space on the same page.

"A lot more probably needs to be examined about his person though this is not easy, for he has never been easy to read. He is capable of magnanimity, of grand-hearted gestures, selflessness and still the occasional stirring physical act.

Yet he is equally capable of barely believable recklessness, stupidity, recurring physical frailty and stark contradiction, often in the same breath. He is, alas, only human.

"But how much longer, can and should anyone put up with this tiresome, cyclical piffle? Shoaib screws up, PCB warns, Shoaib reacts, PCB punishes, Shoaib appeals, PCB relents: the most inane soap operas offer more entertainment and surprise.

It is not a drama anymore, just a series of pathetic jousts between an unruly fool and a succession of inept administrations. Where will it end? Where did it even begin? Not now, maybe not next year, but soon hopefully will come a comma, a semi-colon and these things might start to matter a little less."

Wow, that is quite a damning indictment of Akhtar so I dug around and came across a list of all the trouble and bans he has been slapped with in the past 11 years. As one can see, this man was never far from trouble. Here is the list of shame.

- September 1997: Dropped from Pakistan one-day squad for a series in Toronto on the basis of tour manager's report of an earlier visit to England by the A team.

- December 1999: Banned for illegal bowling action.

- February 2000: Banned for a test and fined

$1 800 (around R13 800) after breaching players' code of conduct on tour of Australia.

- January 2001: Banned for illegal bowling action for a second time.

- November 2002: Fined 50 percent of match fee, banned for one One-Day International for throwing a bottle into crowd during a test in Zimbabwe.

- December 2002: Suspended one-test ban for ball tampering.

- May 2003: Banned for two ODIs and fined 75 percent of match fee for ball tampering during a tri-series match in Sri Lanka.

- October 2003: Banned for one test and two ODIs for using obscene and offensive language towards South African Paul Adams in Lahore test.

- December 2004: Fined 40 percent of match fee for taunting batsman during test in Australia.

- January 2005: Fined 25 percent of match fee for excessive appealing in ODI in Australia.

- October 2006: Banned for two years for testing positive for nandrolone. Ban lifted on appeal two months later.

- August 2007: Fined $5 000 for leaving training camp without permission. Fine suspended.

- October 2007: Banned for 13 international matches and fined around $120 300 for four breaches of discipline, including striking teammate Mohammad Asif with a bat before Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. Also put on two-year probation.

- April 2008: Banned for five years by PCB for violating code of conduct while under probation period.

So is this finally the end of a career which showed so much promise but has now ended in tears. I fear it is.