Shoaib Malik's fall from CPL grace
How Shoaib Malik went from going to the Caribbean nearly every summer since 2013 to ending up on their virtual blacklist
Shoaib Malik is the only remaining player to have made their international debut in the 90s. And since then, he’s been a controversial topic amongst fans and players alike, often referred to as a snake for leading revolts within the team, and for incidents such as infamously throwing a domestic T20 match in 2004 to knock a team out.
But for his fans (which he continues to have more than plenty of), he’s regarded as Pakistan’s best player of spin, a chase master, and someone who is capable of winning high-pressure matches singlehandedly.
And many of his fans hailed from the Caribbean, particularly Guyana from the time he played for the Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
But that was from 2018 onwards.
Aside from being able to maintain the very same physique he made his Pakistan debut with all the way back in 1999, another area of his career he’s always had full grace in was in the CPL, until 2021 that is.
Since the league’s inception, barring the 2020 season, he returned every summer before his final season to date the following year.
Before moving to the Guyana Amazon Warriors in 2018, Malik was always on the team sheet for the Barbados Tridents (before they were rebranded to the Royals in 2021), pivotal in their 2014 title-winning campaign in which he scored 406 runs across 10 matches averaging 50.75 striking at 129.71 with 4 fifties and a top socre of 81 to finish as the tournament’s second highest run scorer, and as the Man of the Final for scoring 55 off 42 deliveries.
And in the midst of Malik helping Barbados put their hand on a trophy that had plenty of hands on it already, he was also involved in that notorious spat with Tino Best, for which he was fined half of his match fee, and at the team hotel after the match, another incident occurred involving the two.
But after 2 consecutive seasons of failing to cross the 200-run mark, Malik was ultimately released, and was signed by the Amazon Warriors, and during his time with them, he became the face of the franchise.
Ahead of the 2019 season, he was appointed their captain and instantly had an impact that would have gone down the annals of T20 cricket in gold writing: nearly leading them to their first title in what would have been a flawless campaign.
Leading up to the final against Malik’s former franchise, the Amazon Warriors didn’t lose a single match, directly qualifying for the final with a 30-run win against them courtesy of Brandon King’s iconic 132*, which remains the highest individual score in the league’s history to this day, complemented by a Malik cameo of a 19-ball 32.
But Barbados successfully sought vengeance, as the Amazon Warriors went on to lose yet another final (their fifth to be exact), spoiling not only the party of the Guyanese people but especially that of Malik’s fans, who would’ve beaten such a season run like a dead horse to this day on Twitter to prove why he is Pakistan’s biggest match winner in the format, with video compilations of his performances that season galore.
It would’ve also been the golden opportunity to push his name as Pakistan’s next T20I captain, as not long after, Sarfaraz Ahmed got sacked following a whitewash against a depleted Sri Lankan team at home, and until I later learned about Malik’s antics throughout his career, I too was strongly convinced he was the best fit as his successor.
Though Malik certainly played a strong hand in helping the Amazon Warriors qualify for the finals spotless scoring 317 runs across 12 matches averaging 63.40 striking at 124.31 with 2 fifties and top scoring with 73 to finish as the tournament’s sixth-highest run-scorer, in the final he played an inning that was all too familiar for Pakistani fans in must-win matches at T20 World Cups over the years: 4 off 11 deliveries with no boundaries chasing a target of 178.
But in spite of that, the fall from CPL grace didn’t come there; he became the face of the team during that season.
It was a common sight to see the camera pan over to Guyanese fans holding Malik posters whenever the Amazon Warriors were playing, and ahead of the 2020 CPL season, fan editorials were published locally expressing disappointment in Malik’s inability to return owing to international commitments with Pakistan.
To the joy of such fans though, he returned for 2021, but in hindsight, the entire island of Guyana would've wished he never did, as even though they were able to qualify for the playoffs, that’s where his fall from CPL grace came.
He became the hero to zero in their eyes, the inverse of Nasser Hossain’s iconic phrase during commentary of the 2017 Champions Trophy Final, “One minute up, next minute down.”
Across the 11 matches he played, he failed to score over a run a ball each time he batted, and his top score of 23 was scored off 29 balls. Malik scored 67 runs with a paltry average of 7.44, dismally striking at 59.82.
And during this disaster run, a comical incident occurred where he was batting with a fork stuck on the sole of his shoe against the Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots during the Amazon Warriors’ second match, eventually ending up scrapping 5 off 12 deliveries without a boundary, literally like a never-ending nightmare you can’t wake up from.
And even though the league has been heavily criticized for extremely slow pitches initially post-pandemic (particularly in 2020), the irony of it is that Malik was expected to perform very well in such conditions, especially their home ground Providence (or the Guyana Gluepit as prominent writer and analyst Jarrod Kimber likes to call it), for after all, he’s the best player of spin from Pakistan.
But the third of his dismissals came against spin (specifically offspin) alone!
On top of that, out of all middle order batters, Malik had one of the worst balls per dismissal (BPD) against spin that season!
How can this happen to Pakistan’s best player of spin? He should have maneuvered through the gluepit with ease!
Statistically speaking, their current best T20 player of spin is Azam Khan, who happens to share a couple of similarities with Malik, that being just like him he started his CPL career at Barbados before moving to the Amazon Warriors ahead of this upcoming season, and is also a fellow middle order batter.
And given the nature of CPL’s pitches primarily post-pandemic despite his current, unlike CPL career strike rate of 126.45, it’s been a solid start thus far, taking Barbados to the final last year in his second season exactly like Malik, though he did not play a final-winning knock as the spin maestro did.
But that was nearly a decade ago. CPL21 was such a humiliating fall from grace for Malik that he hasn’t stepped foot in the Caribbean once since then, let alone Guyana, as he hasn’t gotten another gig in the league.
Malik continues to be an active player on the T20 circuit at 41 years old, but it remains very unlikely that Pakistan’s best player of spin will get another CPL contract to redeem himself from the bomb he dropped on the gluepit, as even though he has a reputation for being cool, calm and collected all these years, the way things currently stand, Malik’s uncool fall from CPL grace is one that’ll never be calmly and collectively forgotten.
But perhaps, it is written in the stars that the CPL grace of Pakistan’s current statistically best T20 player of spin will begin at the one of many jobs Shoaib Malik didn’t finish off, that being to guide the Guyana Amazon Warriors through the gluepit to their first trophy.