Shoaib Akthar & The Curious Case Of Genital Warts

The poor lad cannot take part in the upcoming World T20 because he needs more time to recover from a case of "genital wounds". Akhtar is notorious for his hard partying ways around the Melbourne clubbing scene and his love of the good life has landed him in trouble many a time with various cricketing authorities. It now seems that this rather carefree attitude may have put him out of action from more than just the cricket pitch.

The Pakistani team is probably thanking its lucky stars that Akhtar has found himself an excuse to skip the tourney. That the excuse is somewhat amusing and likely to make him the butt of all change room jokes for ever and a day is merely an added bonus.

The bigger question here has nothing to do with how or why Shoaib Akhtar forgot to wear a condom, but by how much Pakistani cricket will be better off without the distraction of his meandering presence.

Akthar has been a constant source of scandal, disruption and ridicule for the team and the PCB. The multifarious incidents with him as chief protagonist have served to lose Pakistan more matches than he would have ever won through his own blood and sweat. Most players would have been permanently banned after slapping the team coach, following it up by using a cricket bat to assault a team mate and then turning to drugs to bowl faster when his throwing action started proving inadequate.

The PCB has displayed an amazing ability to do everything but take the right decision, even when the said option has been staring it in the face. I have no reason to believe that the PCB will take a hint and cast Akhtar into the cricketing wilderness while it has the opportunity before it on a silver platter. However, there's no harming in pointing the thirsty to the well.

As an aside, I'm not the cold, emotionless type I make out to be and I do wish the diseased lad a speedy recovery. We might even see a canny condom manufacturer sign him up for a promotional tour.