Shahid Afridi to mentor Kowloon Cantons but won't play in Hong Kong T20 Blitz

Former Pakistan captain and one of the cleanest hitters of the cricket ball, Shahid Afridi will travel to Hong Kong for the DTC Hong Kong T20 Blitz despite severely injuring his hand during the eliminator clash against the Karachi Kings in the PSL. Afridi won’t be taking part in the tournament as a player but will be travelling with the team to mentor them. The Kowloon Cantons, for which Afridi was supposed to play in the tournament was overjoyed at the gesture shown by the great man.

He hurt his hand badly while attempting a straightforward catch against a drive from Kieron Pollard of the bowling of Hasan Ali. Afridi was immediately rushed to first aid and received 12 stitches in his right hand. Due to the injury, Afridi had to sit out from the final of PSL. But despite his absence, Peshawar Zalmi thumped the Quetta Gladiators by 58 runs to lift the title.

Kowloon Cantoons were touched by the commitment shown by Afridi despite injuring his hand severely. “We are all touched by the commitment shown by Shahid Afridi, to come and nurture domestic talent in Hong Kong, despite such a severe injury,” Cantons CEO Urvashi Sethi was quoted as saying by South China Morning Post.

Afridi announced his international retirement very recently but this was not the first time he called it a day. Before this Afridi had retired from international cricket on 5 occasions and later returned due to different reasons, be it from the request of fans or family or due to his self-motivation. He has arguably been one of the greatest ever all-rounders the game has seen and even after innumerable controversies in his career, he remains one of the most popular cricketers around.

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Making his international debut way back in 1996, Afridi came into the limelight in only his 2nd ODI smashing the Sri Lankan bowlers all around Nairobi. He struck a scintillating 37 balls century and his whirlwind knock remained the fastest ever century till very recently until broken by Corey Anderson in 2014 and then by AB de Villiers. Afridi also holds the record for most number of sixes in ODI’s and has 395 wickets to his credit which makes him an asset for any limited overs team.