Whatever the controversy surrounding their methods – and this is detailed elsewhere in Wisden – there is no question that in 1992 Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were the most successful cricketers in the world. Opening the bowling for Pakistan, they had a variety and aggression that made them as potent a pair as the game has seen.

In the Test series in England, Wasim took 21 wickets in four Tests. In the other tour matches he was even more devastating and finished with 82 first-class wickets in all at 16.21 each. He had already made his name as a batsman of sometimes astonishing power. In January 1993 he was suddenly appointed to succeed Javed Miandad as Pakistan’s captain, with Waqar as his deputy. Few cricketers were so obviously destined for the game’s aristocracy, but his elevation came even sooner than his admirers had expected. As captain he will be recognised more clearly and more widely as head of state than whichever general or politician holds the nominal office in Islamabad.

None of this was obvious in his boyhood. WASIM AKRAM was born in Lahore on June 3, 1966, to a moderately affluent middle-class family, in which his father was mostly concerned with his son’s happiness rather than his success. His mother was the more ambitious for him, but her thoughts hardly embraced professional sport. They sent him to the fee-paying Cathedral School in Lahore, where all the lessons, other than Urdu, were conducted in English. In the tradition of the English public school, the Cathedral’s scholars were expected to play games. Wasim, dreaming of the feats of Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal and Mushtaq Mohammad, needed no urging to play cricket.

At 12 he was opening the bowling and batting for the school team. At 15 he was captain, his whole life consumed by cricket, at school, in nets at home, in the garage with his brother, and in street games played with a tennis ball. These matches were played of an evening in the lanes of old Lahore. As many as ten or more teams would compete in a tournament, each side contributing an entry fee, the eventual winners scooping the pool. It was fast, intensely competitive, as much a test of eyesight, reactions and stamina as ability. Wasim was so outstanding that local clubs took notice. When he took four wickets for Ludhiana against Lahore Gymkhana, including those of Ramiz Raja and Intikhab, he won nomination to the talent camp, a summer examination of Lahore’s best 100 young players, promoted by the Pakistan Board.

He was then 18 and his big in-swing and formidable hitting attracted attention. In his class were Ramiz Raja, Mohsin Kamal and Ijaz Ahmed, and he won further nomination to the Pakistan Under-19 camp in Karachi. There the sight of this tall, lively left-armer offering so much promise delighted Pakistan’s former fast bowler, Khan Mohammad, who soon taught him to lift his arm in the delivery stride, adding pace.

By sheer chance Javed Miandad, seeking practice, took a turn in the Under-19 net. He was so impressed by the youngster’s ability to move the ball at speed, while retaining control, that he insisted Wasim be included in a squad of 14 for a three-day Patron’s XI match against the New Zealanders at Rawalpindi. Wasim, again at Miandad’s insistence, displaced the better-known Tahir Naqqash in the final selection and fewer first-class débuts have been more impressive: seven for 50 in the first innings, two more wickets in the second. His scalps included John Wright, Bruce Edgar and John Reid. In such circumstances a Pakistani newspaper’s description of Wasim as a sensation was restrained.

He then made his international début in a one-day match against New Zealand at Faisalabad and, only two months after his entry at Rawalpindi, he was chosen to tour New Zealand. According to Miandad, he did not even realise the Pakistan Board would pay him. In his second Test, at Dunedin, he took ten for 128. It was early 1985 and he was 18 years old.

His reputation soon reached England and Lancashire began tracking him almost immediately. Advised by Imran Khan to seek experience of English conditions before Pakistan’s 1987 tour, he spent a summer with Burnopfield in the Durham League, where he remembers a tiny, freezing flat, wet grounds, and playing on in the rain. Wasim signed an unparalleled six-year contract for Lancashire, in secret, on the first night of the 1987 tour. He burst on English cricket the following summer with a maiden first-class century in his second Championship match, against Somerset, and a performance of Sobers-like proportions against Surrey at Southport. There he took five for 15 including a hat-trick, made a half-century in the first innings and then, with Lancashire struggling, scored 98 off 78 balls. The scores were level when he was last man out, caught on the boundary.

In conversation later that summer he emphasised the point made by so many overseas professionals: “You try to play too much first-class cricket. You sacrifice quality for quantity.” Wasim expressed himself much more happily in the one-day competitions where he became, probably, the most feared opponent, able to turn a one-day game, with bat or ball, in two or three overs. Championship cricket, on Old Trafford’s improving square, he found to be frustrating, culminating in an outburst in 1991 that led to an umpires’ report and a £1,000 fine by the county club. For weeks there were rumours, as Wasim struggled with a recurring groin strain, that he would not return. The situation was resolved by a new contract that may have made Wasim the world’s best-paid cricketer until, that is, Surrey came to settle with Waqar.

Meanwhile, his reputation as a Test cricketer was growing all the time. At Adelaide in 1989-90, he had a partnership with Imran Khan that saved Pakistan from what looked like imminent defeat and took them to the edge of victory. Wasim’s driving to the long, straight boundary of the Adelaide Oval was as powerful as anything ever seen on the ground. Imran was the junior partner. For some time Imran had been saying that Wasim was the world’s greatest all-rounder. Here was the evidence.

After 1992, it is possible to say more than that. He stands at the moment as perhaps the fastest and most destructive left-arm bowler the world has seen.

Courtesy: ESPN CRICINFO

Legendary pace bowler Wasim Akram will fine-tune Pakistan’s fast bowlers for the Champions Trophy at a 10-day training camp in Karachi this month.
Three untested fast bowlers will join the likes of Umar Gul, Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan during the April 20-29 camp.

Akram said it’s high time for Pakistan to find lethal fast bowlers to have a reserve pace armory as he feels it’s easy to teach them how to control the pace and the art of swing.

The bowler took 414 wickets in 104 test matches before quitting the longer format of the game in 2002. He also took 502 wickets in 356 one-day internationals and retired from international cricket in 2003.
The PCB had been trying to schedule Akram in for a camp since the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka last year, but the former Pakistan captain had been busy with assignments as a television commentator – mainly in India.

‘The idea is that within 10 days give the fast bowler the insight of the game,’ Akram said.
Akram used to form a lethal partnership with Waqar Younis in the late 1990s, but since their retirement only Shoaib Akhtar was able to briefly fill their shoes.

Pakistan suffered a big loss when young left-arm paceman Mohammad Amir and pin-point accurate Mohammad Asif were both suspended for longer periods from international matches for their involvement in match-fixing in 2010.
Akram hopes that the three untested young fast bowlers could prove an asset for Pakistan after getting training with Pakistan’s frontline at Karachi.

‘We should prepare a crop of fast bowlers so that if someone gets injured, we know there is a backup,’ Akram said. ‘Of course these fast bowlers will then be picked in their respective regional teams and their progress will be monitored on regular basis.’

Akram was not impressed by Pakistan’s fast bowlers in the Test series in South Africa which the Proteas won 3-0, saying they didn’t ‘bowl in the right corridors.’
‘I have to teach them what is, like we the commentators say, the good corridor,’ he said. ‘What is the right line and length, and how to bowl yorkers around the wicket.’

However, Akram is encouraged with Mohammad Irfan, who was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers on the tour of South Africa.
‘I told him in India that if you are physically fit you can disturb a batsman in all the three formats of the game,’ Akram said. ‘If he is trained properly then he will be there for three, four years.’

After a 10-day camp at Karachi, there will be a special camp for the Champions Trophy-bound squad in the northern city of Abbottabad where Akram said he would also monitor the progress of the fast bowlers.

Courtesy: MAIL ONLINE

KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has turned to former captain and fast bowler Wasim Akram and will prepare special pitches for the national team ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy in England in June.

The PCB said on Wednesday that former left-arm quick Akram would be supervising a 10-day specialised camp for fast bowlers in Karachi.

“Besides the national team pace bowlers some upcoming young and raw pace bowlers will also attend the camp which will be conducted by Wasim for the board,” a PCB official said.

Pakistan’s chief selector Iqbal Qasim recently said recently that the team could face a fast bowling crisis as pace talent was drying up in the country.

His comments came after a disappointing show from the Pakistani pacers in this year’s test series against South Africa in which they suffered a whitewash.

Pakistan’s most experienced pace bowler Umar Gul managed just five wickets in two tests at an average of 45 as the team handed debuts to three pace bowlers including Mohammad Irfan, the lone success story of the tour, Rahat Ali and Ehsan Adil.

Akram is Pakistan’s most successful fast bowler with 414 test and 502 one-day international wickets.

Courtesy: TIMES OF INDIA

Wasim Akram and Shahid Afridi at the ‘Child Sports Education Programme’ hosted by Basic Human Rights.

Twitter: @GameLtd, @wasimakramlive, @BHRCharity.

Join us for a trip down memory lane courtesy of the Wisden Almanack as we recall one of the greatest Test match finishes witnessed at Lord’s, back in 1992. The genius of Wasim and Waqar put Pakistan 1-0 up in a fascinating and controversial series which the tourists would eventually go on to win 2-1.

Wasim Akram drove Salisbury through the covers at 6.40 on Sunday evening to give Pakistan a one-match lead in the series and conclude an astonishing day of Test cricket. Seventeen wickets tumbled and the close-to-capacity crowd could be forgiven for thinking this was a one-day final. Pakistan saw near-certain victory evaporate into near-certain defeat before Wasim and Waqar Younis – as a batting partnership for once – defied England’s depleted and tiring attack for the final nerve-racking hour. That last boundary ended England’s brave fightback, and provoked some of the most emotional scenes ever seen at Lord’s as the Pakistan touring party raced on to the playing surface in celebration.

Wasim’s elegant drive also saved the Test and County Cricket Board from facing the wrath of a frustrated crowd for the second successive Test. Had Salisbury bowled a maiden, proceedings for the day would have been concluded. The battle would have resumed on Monday morning with England needing two wickets to tie the Test and Pakistan wanting one run to win. In fact, it would not have been the TCCB’s fault: the Pakistanis had rejected the customary provision for an extra half-hour before the tour began. It was not a great Test match, but Sunday was a great Test day, and it would have been dreadful if this ding-dong battle had not been resolved there and then because of a technicality.

The influence of Pakistan’s heroes, Wasim and Waqar – with ball and bat – was all the more remarkable because there were serious doubts over both a few weeks earlier. Wasim missed the first Test because of shin trouble, while Waqar used Edgbaston for little more than a trial run after the stress fracture which kept him out of the World Cup. Less than a fortnight later, they put Pakistan in command of this Test with 13 wickets, and then held their nerves for a famous victory. Wasim had proved his fitness by taking 16 wickets in the conclusive victories over Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire between the Tests. His return in place of Ata-ur-Rehman was Pakistan’s only change from Edgbaston.

England’s bowling had been much criticised for its lack of variety, but their only alternation to the 13-man squad was Malcolm for Ramprakash. Malcolm had been out of the side, after playing 17 consecutive Tests, since the Lord’s Test a year before, and was selected after England team manager Micky Stewart spent two days watching him at Harrogate, where he failed to add to his season’s tally of 12 first-class wickets. Stewart and Gooch were passed fit after minor worries, as was Botham who was troubled by a groin strain. England left out Munton, again, and Pringle, allowing Salisbury, England’s first specialist legspinner for 21 years, to make his début a fortnight later than expected.

Gooch won the toss, and with Stewart put on 123 for the first wicket at almost a run a minute as Pakistan failed to utilise the new ball, the overcast conditions and poor light. The England captain passed W. R. Hammond’s Test aggregate of 7,249 runs when he reached 53, and looked in no trouble until he edged Wasim onto his stumps. But England lost their way from the moment Hick lobbed an ambitious pull to mid on. Smith became Wasim’s 150th Test victim and Stewart was removed in the last over before tea, after which Waqar cleaned up with a devastating spell of four for 17 in 40 deliveries. Waqar showed no signs of his recent back problem as he claimed his eighth five-wicket haul in his 16th Test, but England contributed to their own downfall. Several were guilty of loose shots and only Russell offered any sensible resistance at the end.

Pakistan’s first innings stretched beyond tea on Saturday, mainly because the second and third sessions on Friday were wiped out by rain. They faced only five overs from Botham, all on Saturday, after he aggravated his groin by slipping over on Thursday night. It did not prevent him catching Javed Miandad at first slip, to give Salisbury his first Test wicket, and following up with a brilliant diving catch to remove Moin Khan and equal M. C. Cowdrey’s England record of 120 Test catches. But England’s hero on Saturday was Malcolm. Pakistan were well set at 228 for three when he halted their charge by removing Asif Mujtaba, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Salim Malik in 13 balls.

England did well to restrict Pakistan to a lead of 38. They pulled in front in the 18 overs negotiated on Saturday night, though Gooch was a casualty. Nightwatchman Salisbury proved a stubborn obstacle on Sunday morning for half-an-hour; but his fellow legspinner, Mushtaq Ahmed, instigated England’s collapse, dismissing Hick, Smith and Lamb in 22 deliveries. Any hope of setting Pakistan a stiff target was destroyed by Wasim, who took the final three wickets in four deliveries. Stewart, alone, stood defiant. He became the sixth Englishman to carry his bat in a Test, and the first at Lord’s. It was a responsible and mature innings, confirming his recent progress.

The day’s events had already been dramatic, but the climactic act was about to unfold. Pakistan needed 138 for victory, with nine hours remaining. They were soon 18 for three, as Lewis found the edge of the bats of Ramiz Raja, Asif Mujtaba and Miandad, all for ducks, in a high-quality spell. And when Salisbury had Malik caught with his fifth delivery, England had the sniff of victory. Gooch had two problems, however, Botham, still troubled by his groin, had been hit on the toe, and DeFreitas had strained his groin, too; neither could bowl. But Salisbury refused to be overawed by the occasion and, with the help of a foolish run-out and another neat catch by Hick at second slip off Malcolm, Pakistan were reduced to 95 for eight.

But the injuries told against England. Gooch had no one to administer the coup de grâce; Lewis, who had bowled his best spell in Test cricket, was running on empty. What England’s captain needed was an over from Wasim or Waqar. But they were batting for the other side and, slowly but surely, they took Pakistan to victory. Rarely can a Test crowd have been through so many emotions in a single day’s play.

England’s players were fined £330 each by referee Bob Cowper for their slow over-rate; it could have been £1,210, more than half their match fee, had he not allowed for interruptions and the long walk from the Lord’s dressing-rooms to the pitch. During the match, Cornhill announced an extension to their sponsorship of English Test cricket, paying £3.2 million for the privilege in 1993 and 1994. But, like the lucky 26,000 spectators, Cornhill will never get better value for their money than they did on this Sunday at Lord’s.

Man of the Match: Wasim Akram.
Attendance: 96,576; receipts £1,797,204.

Courtesy: ALL OUT CRICKET

Pakistan bowler Wasim Akram celebrates after dismissing England batsman Neil Mallender (right) in the 2nd innings on the fourth day of the 5th Test match between England and Pakistan at the Kennington Oval in London, 9th August 1992. Pakistan won by 10 wickets and win the series 2-1.

Wasim Akram was a likely successor to the great Imran Khan as Pakistan’s supreme all-rounder and captain. Naturally talented, Wasim was polished under the reign of Imran Khan and he soon become one of the most threatening bowlers in the cricketing arena. Arguably, the finest left arm bowler of all time, he was often labelled as a “dream cricketer”.

Wasim, with a strong pair of shoulders use to bustle into the wicket and with his whippy action, he has teased and tested top ranked batsman of his era. His ability to deliver the bowl anywhere between 115kph to 145kph made him almost unplayable.

Wasim’s rise started in late 1980s, when Pakistan went to play West Indies. With the entire legacy belonging to the West Indian fast bowlers, on that particular tour Wasim looked to be the quickest between both sides. Early in his career, he was on track to be a star, and legend in making. With the lively pace, he was deadly, accurate and mastered the skill of the reverse and conventional swing. Unlike other bowlers, he used to swing both ways at complete ease.

His talent to bowl bouncers and Yorkers at his will was something extraordinary. His deception with the line and length, speed, and action made him the magician on the cricket ground. This was the reason that kept the batsman thinking on what they should expect from the master of his trade. With his bowling partner Waqar Younis, he was even more wreckful for the opposition. Both bowlers shared a healthy rivalry that helped the team in many ways. Similar with the results, but different bowling styles were nightmares for the top batsman. Wasim and Waqar, to-date are known to be the best bowling pair and were famously known as “wicket taking machines.”

Another aspect of Wasim’s success was to get sensational on all sorts of tracks. Most of the bowlers need some assist from the conditions; however, Wasim had a different case. He performed against all cricketing nations under varied conditions around the globe. He was absolute class on the supporting tracks, like in England and Australia. However, he was equally effective on tracks without zest and lift. When he was 20, Pakistan toured India under the captaincy of Imran Khan. Surprisingly, on dead flat tracks, he kept on chipping wickets habitually and returned to Pakistan as a “national hero.”

One of his top-notch performances was early in his career in the 1992 world cup final, played at Melbourne Cricket Ground. It is always a proud feeling to play in world cup finals, and if it is for the first time, one would like to make it memorable. This was the script given by the skipper Imran Khan, and Wasim performed as the situation demanded. Certainly, with butterflies in his tummy, Wasim walked to bat for Pakistan in the finals against England. On the last ball of Pakistan’s innings, he got run out; however, he had already done the damage to the opposition as he scored 33 runs off 18 balls with the help of 4 boundaries.

With the new white ball in his hand and bowling with purpose, he removed English star Ian Botham with the scoreboard reading 6. However, that was not the only delight he had for that night. Pakistan posted a total of 249 for victory and England were going steady at 141 for 4. Imran and his team started to feel the need of a wicket; Wasim was the one they could rely on. Wasim returned for a mid-innings spell and cleaned up the ever-consistent Allan Lamb. Next ball he disturbed the furniture of Chris Lewis. No one can explain these two unplayable deliveries that left England thinking what they had done wrong. Subsequently, this all-round performance for the night earned him man of the match award.

Courtesy: BETTOR.COM

Wasim Akram remains to this day the finest left-arm fast bowler ever to grace the game. A devastating ability to swing the ball late and at pace, combined with metronomic accuracy, made the Pakistani a fearsome proposition, and he and his partner Waqar Younis tore through batting line-ups across the globe for over a decade.

Wasim was already well known in England from his time with Lancashire and when he arrived for Pakistan’s tour in 1992 he more than lived up to his reputation. The Wisden Almanack picks up the story.

Wasim Akram – Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1993

Whatever the controversy surrounding their methods, there is no question that in 1992 Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were the most successful cricketers in the world. Opening the bowling for Pakistan, they had a variety and aggression that made them as potent a pair as the game has seen.

In the Test series in England, Wasim took 21 wickets in four Tests. In the other tour matches he was even more devastating and finished with 82 first-class wickets in all at 16.21 each. He had already made his name as a batsman of sometimes astonishing power. In January 1993 he was suddenly appointed to succeed Javed Miandad as Pakistan’s captain, with Waqar as his deputy. Few cricketers were so obviously destined for the game’s aristocracy, but his elevation came even sooner than his admirers had expected. As captain he will be recognised more clearly and more widely as head of state than whichever general or politician holds the nominal office in Islamabad.

None of this was obvious in his boyhood. Wasim Akram was born in Lahore on June 3, 1966, to a moderately affluent middle-class family, in which his father was mostly concerned with his son’s happiness rather than his success. His mother was the more ambitious for him, but her thoughts hardly embraced professional sport. They sent him to the fee-paying Cathedral School in Lahore, where all the lessons, other than Urdu, were conducted in English. In the tradition of the English public school, the Cathedral’s scholars were expected to play games. Wasim, dreaming of the feats of Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal and Mushtaq Mohammad, needed no urging to play cricket.

At 12 he was opening the bowling and batting for the school team. At 15 he was captain, his whole life consumed by cricket, at school, in nets at home, in the garage with his brother, and in street games played with a tennis ball. These matches were played of an evening in the lanes of old Lahore. As many as 10 or more teams would compete in a tournament, each side contributing an entry fee, the eventual winners scooping the pool. It was fast, intensely competitive, as much a test of eyesight, reactions and stamina as ability. Wasim was so outstanding that local clubs took notice. When he took four wickets for Ludhiana against Lahore Gymkhana, including those of Ramiz Raja and Intikhab, he won nomination to the talent camp, a summer examination of Lahore’s best 100 young players, promoted by the Pakistan Board.

He was then 18 and his big inswing and formidable hitting attracted attention. In his class were Ramiz Raja, Mohsin Kamal and Ijaz Ahmed, and he won further nomination to the Pakistan under 19 camp in Karachi. There the sight of this tall, lively left-armer offering so much promise delighted Pakistan’s former fast bowler, Khan Mohammad, who soon taught him to lift his arm in the delivery stride, adding pace.

By sheer chance Javed Miandad, seeking practice, took a turn in the under 19 net. He was so impressed by the youngster’s ability to move the ball at speed, while retaining control, that he insisted Wasim be included in a squad of 14 for a three-day Patron’s XI match against the New Zealanders at Rawalpindi. Wasim, again at Miandad’s insistence, displaced the better-known Tahir Naqqash in the final selection and fewer first-class débuts have been more impressive: seven for 50 in the first innings, two more wickets in the second. His scalps included John Wright, Bruce Edgar and John Reid. In such circumstances a Pakistani newspaper’s description of Wasim as a sensation was restrained.

He then made his international début in a one-day match against New Zealand at Faisalabad and, only two months after his entry at Rawalpindi, he was chosen to tour New Zealand. According to Miandad, he did not even realise the Pakistan Board would pay him. In his second Test, at Dunedin, he took ten for 128. It was early 1985 and he was 18 years old.

His reputation soon reached England and Lancashire began tracking him almost immediately. Advised by Imran Khan to seek experience of English conditions before Pakistan’s 1987 tour, he spent a summer with Burnopfield in the Durham League, where he remembers a tiny, freezing flat, wet grounds, and playing on in the rain. Wasim signed an unparalleled six-year contract for Lancashire, in secret, on the first night of the 1987 tour. He burst on English cricket the following summer with a maiden first-class century in his second Championship match, against Somerset, and a performance of Sobers-like proportions against Surrey at Southport. There he took five for 15 including a hat-trick, made a half-century in the first innings and then, with Lancashire struggling, scored 98 off 78 balls. The scores were level when he was last man out, caught on the boundary.

In conversation later that summer he emphasised the point made by so many overseas professionals: “You try to play too much first-class cricket. You sacrifice quality for quantity.” Wasim expressed himself much more happily in the one-day competitions where he became, probably, the most feared opponent, able to turn a one-day game, with bat or ball, in two or three overs. Championship cricket, on Old Trafford’s improving square, he found to be frustrating, culminating in an outburst in 1991 that led to an umpires’ report and a £1,000 fine by the county club. For weeks there were rumours, as Wasim struggled with a recurring groin strain, that he would not return. The situation was resolved by a new contract that may have made Wasim the world’s best-paid cricketer until, that is, Surrey came to settle with Waqar.

Meanwhile, his reputation as a Test cricketer was growing all the time. At Adelaide in 1989/90, he had a partnership with Imran Khan that saved Pakistan from what looked like imminent defeat and took them to the edge of victory. Wasim’s driving to the long, straight boundary of the Adelaide Oval was as powerful as anything ever seen on the ground. Imran was the junior partner. For some time Imran had been saying that Wasim was the world’s greatest all-rounder. Here was the evidence.

After 1992, it is possible to say more than that. He stands at the moment as perhaps the fastest and most destructive left-arm bowler the world has seen.

Courtesy: The Wisden Almanack

Wasim Akram of Pakistan with team-mates during a game of frisbee during a net session at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, May 03, 2001.