‘Thought this guy is dead’ – Shoaib Akhtar recalls bowling vicious bouncers in county cricket

Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has tormented a number of batters with his bouncers in international cricket. Same was the case even when he played for Worcestershire in county cricket. Over the years, plenty of batsmen had fallen prey to his leather short deliveries. It wasn’t any different for Glamorgan’s Matthew Maynard, who scored over 38,000 runs in domestic cricket.

Akhtar said that he used to smash a number of batsmen with his bouncers, but also felt guilty after doing so. Talking about Maynard, who also played four Tests and 14 ODIs for England from 1988 to 2000, Shoaib stated that he asked the right-hander to go off since it was dark.

However, Maynard decided to hold his ground and he ended up, copping a blow on the face. The Rawalpindi Express was scared that he might have killed the batsman with his bouncer. Akhtar made the revelations to Pakistani sports presenter Sawera Pasha on her YouTube channel.

The ball hit him on the face: Shoaib Akhtar

“In first-class cricket when I played for English county Worcestershire, I hit quite a few batsmen. And then it seemed like ‘Oh God I have done something wrong’. I could never understand why I was so mean,” Akhtar told.

“One incident that I remember is with Matthew Maynard of Glamorgan. It was dull in the evening and the light was not great so I told him, ‘let’s go off because my pace is not comfortable to face at this time. So, if you want we can go off’.

“But he said ‘let’s face you’. So, I went around the wicket and bowled a fast bouncer. It wasn’t very dark but I felt it would be difficult to face my pace. The ball hit him on the face and he fell on the wickets. I thought ‘this guy is dead’.  He fell on the wickets, got out and was in a lot of pain. So yeah, every time I hit someone I felt bad,” he added.

Akhtar once revealed that the Indian tail-end batsmen also asked him to get them out, but not hit them. He even told how former South African batsman Gary Kirsten keeps on reminding him about the incident when the pacer hit him below the eye.