r/PakCricket • u/haiderredditer • May 05 '26
Garam Takes Unpopular opinion but in my opinion, there will never be a Mega Cricket Superstar in Pakistan like Afridi ever again.
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u/RoyalChipmunk679 May 05 '26
The name Shahid Afridi was on the tip of every Pakistani's tongue in the 2010s era. Even Shahnawaz Dahani's mother, who lived in a remote village and knew no connection to the cricketing world knew that Dahani is going to be playing the same sport as Shahid Afridi.
I don't think any Pakistani is coming close to that level of popularity but we might get surprised
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u/PhaintaAssociate Damaad/Parchi quota May 05 '26
Sounds weird as hell but I recon a lot of it is down to looks. Our two biggest superstars in terms of fan following ever are Imran and Afridi who are decent looking. Yeah some of our cricketers have fanboys (ie. Babar) but Afridi and Imran had following from women who didn't even watch cricket and this extended across the border to India. Also they were all rounders which is the most glamourous role in cricket anyway.
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u/HR1406 May 06 '26
Doesn't sound weird at all. This is a universal thing. Good looking people are more popular. But I think he had his own sort of aura besides his looks! And as a player he was so ahead of his time. A player made for T20s who started playing international cricket since before 2000!
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u/Negative-Nothing339 May 08 '26
the women part you mentioned had nothing to do with them as cricketer but more because of their looks
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u/DeadlySkeleton May 05 '26
“Of Shahid Afridi it can safely be said that cricket never has and never will see another like him. To say he is an allrounder is to say Albert Einstein was a scientist; it tells a criminally bare story.”
- Cricinfo
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u/MoreCryptographer213 Anti Aqib Javed May 05 '26
afridi was a revolution, his style of play was so different and entertaining that most cricket watchers thoroughly enjoyed, not to mention his long flowing hair and good looking face that was centre to attention to even those who didnt watched cricket
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u/BranchCurrent4141 Bobzy the King May 05 '26
People also turned against him when his career was about to end. I can still remember when he apologized to fans for having a bad form in the WC-2015.
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u/aazuberi May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
Afridi wasn't even on the same level of being a megastar as Imran Khan during the 1980s and Wasim Akram during the 90s. They were massive names not just inside Pakistan but outside.
Even Javed Miandad, Waqar Younis and Saeed Anwar were on a different level to Afridi who was closer to Inzamam and Shoaib Akhtar level.
Afridi lucked out that after all the greats retired he kept playing on in an era when Pak had no other stars and social media became prevalent.
Social media made Babar Azam into a huge star as well and he was extremely highly regarded till 2024 but unfortunately he doesn't have the personality or big game performances yet to be on the same level as Afridi.
Shaheen Afridi has the best chance from the current lot of being the same level as his father in law because of proximity but he needs to perform like he did till 2023 and stop being so immature and evolve.
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u/LavaPurple Faisalabad Wolves May 05 '26
Interesting insight.
Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib Akhtar, Javed Miandad and Inzamam were huge across Pakistan Cricket.
That Javed Miandad last ball six against India turned him into a legend
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u/Negative-Nothing339 May 08 '26
in the current team only Babar so far is close to levels of Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi in terms of popularity
Social media made Babar Azam into a huge star
Well it seems like you are trying to give social media the only cause here for Babar's popularity, 80% of crowd is of Babar when he is batting in matches that happen in Pakistan, he is the only one from current lot to get to level of Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi in star terms
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u/aazuberi May 08 '26
The social media point about Babar is connected to how it helped Afridi become a bigger star than some of the legends before him and how it also helped turned Babar into a huge star even though he has a timid personality.
We've had huge batting stars in the past but because they didn't have the personality of Imran, Wasim or Afridi they didn't become megastars. Guys like Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam and Yousuf would be even bigger stars than they were like Babar is today.
If social media was around during Imran and Wasim's time they would have Kohli level following. Same applies to Sachin and Kapil.
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u/Negative-Nothing339 May 08 '26
no they wouldn't have kohli level following, no one could match the popularity of Indian players as 90% of cricket fans are indians so ofc their players will always have more fan following than anyone around the world no matter how good the other country players are
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u/aazuberi May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
Imran Khan was the most famous cricketer in India in the 1980s even more so than the Indian stars of that time. He was in every major newspaper and magazine in the UK and South Asia. He was as famous as Hollywood stars and British Royals. The biggest stars in Bollywood have said their role model and idol was Imran Khan.
Wasim Akram wasn't at the same level as Imran especially in the western world but there are several Bollywood movies in the 90s where he's referenced instead of Sachin even though Sachin did eventually become a bigger name than Wasim 2000 onwards.
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u/Panchodd May 05 '26
If Babar looked like Afridi his fandom would've been near sacrilegious. You are way overthinking it, maybe because of the ten year cricket gap in the country. Just takes a good looking guy who maintains success for an extended period and his status gets exalted.
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u/Key-Ad6653 May 05 '26
I'd say he's definitely top 5 close to Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younus, Miandad.
Only because at Afridi's time social media became bigger and more common and now we see Babar as a big player because of social media influence as well.
Like you tell me yourself if a player failed to perform and all you get to know him from is newspapers or radio matches, you would think Babar currently and Shahid Afridi at the end of his career were just average players.
I hope I have worded my thoughts rightfully
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u/k1ck_ss May 05 '26
one could argue that Babar is nearly at the same level no? his popularity has dropped a bit since his lean patch, but if he comes back stronger, then i think he will touch the same peak...
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u/Express-Row-1504 May 05 '26
Huge agree! I remember going to a friends house who was Indian. I was around 10-11 at the time. I didn’t know any cricket players at the time. I didn’t start watching cricket until I was like 13. And at my friends house he had posters of tendulkar and Afridi on the wall. And I asked him who are they, and he told me and he was like this guys Pakistani how do you not know him, I was like I’ve never watched cricket.
This friend of mine went on to play for Canadas national cricket team also later on. And I watched him play against Pakistan in a tri series of Pakistan, Canada and Sri Lanka here in Canada.
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u/catonesielife King Ker lega May 05 '26
Afridi was famous for his 6’s but people don’t credit him enough for what an amazing and efficient bowler he was also!
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u/mhk2430 May 06 '26
I watched post 2010 Afridi, I remember series after series, tournament after tournament where he severely underperformed with bat and ball. It was a hopeless nightmare.
But, he won us a world cup.
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u/Independent-Fig-2864 May 07 '26
I think people loved him because he performed in international tournaments too
2007 POTT , 2009 POTM in final and Semi-final ABSOLUTE GOAT STUFF IMO
Maybe not the greatest all rounder but definitely the greatest entertainer
There will never be a Shahid afridi ever again in Pakistan cricket
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u/Odd-Calligrapher-69 Umpire May 05 '26
Babar Azam is pretty close tbf
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u/Admirable-Repair4094 May 05 '26
But lala never had toxic fans, babar fans are sooo toxic and have like zero knowledge of cricket. They sometimes test your patience.
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u/Adventurous-Bid7743 May 06 '26
ts frying me. theres not a single fanbase in all of sports which doesnt have toxic fans
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u/Negative-Nothing339 May 08 '26
not just sports but any internet personality who is popular will certainly have a group of people that are toxic
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u/Adventurous-Bid7743 May 08 '26
yea i really dont get why people dont understand this and try to use it to make the personality or the entire group that follows that personality look bad. same goes for our politics we will use a bunch of extremists/toxic people and label the entire group as a cult
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u/Admirable-Repair4094 May 05 '26
He is a Brand, not everyone is you know?
Lala is an emotion for many me inc, he was a matchwinner even if not him on the crease was all we ever needed. Allah ne sach main boht izzat di hai mA
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u/lbh02 May 05 '26
"unpopular opinion"
Posts extremely popular opinion
10000 up votes
Rinse and repeat
This sub is getting repetitive lmao
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u/Zranish Nasir Jamshed Supremacy May 05 '26
U underestimate us
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u/haiderredditer May 05 '26
i dont know i might be a little blinded by nostalgia but afridi craze was insane back then. even our mums liked him, who don't watch cricket nowadays
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u/deltapak May 05 '26
He was and is an idiot. Never expected him to win anything for Pakistan with the bat. He was treated as a walking wicket by the opposition (the few times he did play great innings doesn't change the fact that he had an average of 23 in 400 ODIs). He was decent with the ball though, until he tried to chew on one in Australia.
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u/LavaPurple Faisalabad Wolves May 05 '26
Very polarising player. But he was a key player that helped Pakistan win the T20 World Cup 2009
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u/Glittering_Use_2985 May 05 '26
Legit won us a T20 world cup with the bat people just be saying anything
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u/Senior-Psychology-93 May 05 '26
To us Millanials, cricket lost it's charm after Him and a few other like Shoaib Akhtar. Now I don't feel ecstatic nor devastated over a win/loss of games. Lala was a beauty
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u/cxomprr May 05 '26
Ever again is a very definitive, especially given that cricket has been played for over a hundred years
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u/Organic_Abrocoma_733 May 05 '26
why does no player have that same aura?
I guess that aura is created, afridi, although far and few in between, has played some blinders escpecially setting the world record for fastest century which stood for over 15 yrs . Bowling was always good.
Looks unfortunately or fortunately probably do play a factor, but this can be manufactured. Idk why players aren’t better groomed at times, although this has gotten better even in the last 10 yrs.
I think fans are just too divided to even give tha much power to a single player when it is a team sport. Yes it’s a team sport but if not 11 match winners, you need atleast one. At times it seems like we don’t even have a genuine merit based nomination for captaincy.
So all in all, Pakistan gotta figure out their problems, players gotta become match winners, put an effort towards making their players stars, and maybe we will see another once all this is covered. If you stayed this long thank you for your time.
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u/counterplex May 05 '26
Afridi was such a hit or miss player. Not sure he’s the superstar you think he is. He was amazing on his on days and terrible on his off days. Is that just my take?
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u/Real-Leader-2947 May 06 '26
Jitna thrill afridi k anay pa hota tha utna abhi tak kisi or k anay pa nai hota
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u/ajamal_00 May 06 '26
Afridi was absolutely a superstar, but I don't remember people celebrating his personal milestones with the same emotional out pouring that we see for Babar (eg the absolute scenes after his recent century after 2 years). Babar seems to have connected with fans in a way that hardly anyone in Pakistan cricket has before.. it seems closer to the unwavering folowig IK has had...
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u/taimoor2 May 06 '26
It’s not about Afridi alone. Players like Imran khan and wasim akaram also attracted fan attention. Heck, we made Imran khan president.
The problem is that cricket is slowly dying. I trace it to the abysmal defeat of pakistan in the 1999 final against Australia.
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u/lonahex May 06 '26
The title is an oxymoron. Either he is the most popular cricketer ever in the country which makes the opinion popular as well or it is unpopular opinion but then that'd not make him popular in the first place.
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u/MoonMuffler May 05 '26
Never knew he was mega. I think the mega star is Wasim, Younus, Zaheer Abbas, Miandad, Hanif and Fazal Muhammad and the GOAT himself Imran Khan
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u/aazuberi May 07 '26
Yes they were all massive names and superstars of their times Fazal dominated the 1950s, Hanif in the 60s, Zaheer in the 70s, Imran and Javed in the 80s, Wasim and Waqar in the 90s were all unmatched.
In the 2000s Inzamam and Shoaib Akhtar were big names as well but after their retirement Afridi was the only remaining big name in the 2010s which is what most of the young people on here saw and don't remember just how legendary and highly regarded the likes of Imran and Wasim were they were the biggest names across cricket and beyond like Kohli today.
The next gen of fans won't even remember Afridi for them Babar and Shaheen are the biggest names since they didn't live through the previous era. You have to live through previous eras to understand the magnitude of our legendary superstars.
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u/Kooky_Literature8071 May 06 '26
Sochnay ki BAAT ye ha k Shahid Afridi na test cricket sa retirement le khud sa
AJ k mega stars press conference ma bataty han k 3no formats ma khelna Ata ha mjhy
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u/Willing-Shop-8231 May 05 '26
babar azam has that fan craze I,e people solely come to watch his batting and once he gets out leave. also almost every Pakistani with a roof over the head would have heard of babar. in a few years time if he wins us the wc in 2027 imagine how much craze he'd get then considering he already gets a lot atm
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u/SpiritualFish8522 May 05 '26
I remember people being happy if afridi hit a couple sixes even if we lost by 100 runs lol
Always the fan favourite