Is Shoaib shamming?

Controversy dogged Shoaib Akhtar is sure to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons again, now that his cover under a canopy of Bollywood's brightest stars has been blown sky high.

Journalists covering Pakistan's tour of South Africa had been told by team management that 'the Rawalpindi Express' had limped home on one knee, the injured other having forced him out of action.

But a different set of facts emerged on Friday after a photograph of Shoaib was published in a Durban newspaper. And not just any photograph - Amitabh Bachchan beamed his famous smile as he stood to Shoaib's left, and alongside Bachchan was Sanjay Dutt.

The film stars are in Durban for a live performance on Saturday that will also feature Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Karisma Kapoor, Sushmita Sen, Rani Mukherjee, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta.

Under more healthy circumstances, of course, Shoaib would have been hurling his thunderbolts at the South African batsmen in the Boxing Day Test match in Durban.

But he was neither in Pakistan nor at Kingsmead, a fact the embarrassed Pakistani management declined to discuss on Friday. The Pakistan team and the Bollywood bunch are staying at the same Five-Star beachfront hotel, and other guests have been inconvenienced by the fuss created by their famous fellows.

Security has been dramatically increased, and one guest spoke of  having to force her way to the front door through crowds of yearning fans and monolithic guards.

"At first I thought the guards were only there for the movie stars," she said. "Then Shoaib walked past and the whole place went mad. He really has presence, and he knows how to use it."

The same guest visited a thumping Durban nightclub on Friday night, and there was Shoaib - and a throng of security men.

Did he dance?

"Did he ever! He knows how to get down, and his knees looked just fine to me."

Suspicions about the veracity of Shoaib's injury first arose when Pakistan coach Richard Pybus said he was unaware that the player was injured or said to be returning home.