Pakistan

Shoaib Malik belatedly begins to explain the seemingly inexplicable

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Shoaib Malik’s always been hugely popular with a certain segment of Pakistan fans and we’ve never remotely understood why. He’s always seemed so nondescript.

He’s long had some sort of PR machine behind him which, as well as skewing our perception of his popularity a touch, may  have won over a few people – but it wouldn’t have that much impact, would it? Those who follow sport aren’t generally won over by marketing hype for long.

At least now, with a whopping double hundred to his name, there’s some sort of justification. It’s still not an explanation though. Unless you have recourse to a flux capacitor and 1.21 gigawatts of power, explanations have to come beforehand, not afterwards.

So what’s the appeal?

We can only presume that for Pakistan fans, Shoaib Malik seems wildly exotic. Amid all the fast bowlers, wrist spinners and dashing stroke-makers, a lumpen, plodding batsman who bowls a bit of finger spin must really stand out. Local TV probably runs fawning documentaries about Dan Vettori during lunch intervals.

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9 comments

  1. He is popular because he’s scored a lot of runs against India. This is not too far removed from the way that England players tend to get rated based entirely on what they do in the Ashes.

  3. Lot of clutch runs against India, tough competitor, and marriage to an Indian tennis star doesn’t make him too popular in India.

  4. Sehwag channeling Sinatra/Vicious in the announcement of his retirement – “I did it my way“.

    No doubt someone (perhaps our very own post-modern Post Author) is currently working on alternative lyrics to everyone’s least favourite karaoke song at this very moment….

    1. Haha.

      When Sammy Cahn died I wrote a tombstone lyric for him to that tune.

      It was indeed a post-modern joke, as Sammy Cahn was often erroneously praised/blamed for the lyrics of that song. Much to Sammy Cahn’s chagrin I was reliably informed.

      As I pointed out in my spoof lyrics, the actual author was, of course, Paul Anka.
      I probably don’t need to provide any more clues to one of the stronger rhyming couplets.

      Other than that memorial effort, I have always studiously avoided using the My Way tune as a base for spoof lyrics. It is up there with Modern Major General and YMCA at the top of the “ones to avoid” charts.

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