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After an illustrious career, Wasim Akram announced his retirement from International Cricket. He is indeed the granddaddy of reverse swing which completely changed the way fast bowlers go after batsmen. Rediff.com has a very nice slideshow: a trip down memory lane, tracing the highs and lows of his 19-year-long career.
Well, one thing is for sure. Cricket lovers are going to miss watching Akram bowl.
I first saw Akram in 1985, during the Benson & Hedges cup in Australia. That was when television had come to my little village in India. All my uncles were Cricket fans; spending lot of time listening to radio commentary from BBC. When we saw TV (it was in Black and White) for the first time, we were very excited about actually *seeing* the action, rather than listening to it. For the record, I believe the quality of match telecast and commentators in India these days are so bad that I prefer BBC radio commentary. The final was between India and Pakistan. We had read about Akram, a new Pakistani fast bowler - said to be along the lines of Sarfraz Nawaz - making news. Unfortunately (or may be, fortunately for India!), he was injured and didn’t bowl, if I remember correctly.
After that, I saw him bowl in Sharjah and during India-Pak test matches. Quite frankly, I thought he was much more lethal than Imran Khan - by then Imran rarely used to bowl outswingers. After Waqar Younis joined the Pakistan team, I used to make sure I could see their opening bowling. It was that good. In limited overs games, we used to think that scoring had to be done in 30 overs, discounting the 20 overs shared by Wasim and Waqar - I’m sure lot of opposition teams planned that way too.
I was in college during the 1992 World Cup. I still can remember the deliveries that bowled Alan Lamb and Chris Lewis. The England tour of 1992 produced some phenomenal bowling performance from both the W’s.
Over the years, politics has made India-Pakistan matches a rarity. Note: I do believe that there shouldn’t be cricket series between India and Pakistan in either countries, till there is a focussed peace process. After a long time, I watched Akram in action during the recent World Cup. Well, he has lost some pace. But he is still lethal, considering his short run-up, absolute control over the ball and swing. As usual, batsmen still find it difficult to read him.
Good bye Wasim.
A bit offtopic. Some commentators that cover Indian cricket are indeed pretty pathetic in more ways than one. I think Srikkanth and Sidhu come to mind immediately, not to mention the bunch of Hindi commentators.
But people like Ravi Shastri, Gavaskar, Manjarekar and Arun Lal are very good and they usually give some very analytical insights. Apart from that, there are also the overseas commentators who usually are around like Michael Holding and others.
wasim akram was really a great all-rounder. He lives in the heart of every pakistani and we will never every be able to forget the brillliant performance of wasim for pakistan.
Waim akram was really a great all-rounder. He really put his full energy for the success and fame for the pakistani cricket and never demanded any-thing in response. He lives in the hearts of pakistani people and we as pakistani will never ever be able to forget his brilliant performance for Pakistani Cricket
wow, what a man he was!
wasim akram is good palayer of pakistani team and he is a good bowloer and good alrouder and person ilove wasim akram
wasim bhai , i am your greatest fan. please tell me something about fast bowling. i am too a fast bowler.
thank you
wasim bahi i just wanna tell u tht all wrold know tht u r a gr8 allrounder but plz dont waist yours talent provide yours talent to young paki bowler because you know they hardly need you . and the feature of paki bowler is dark without you
hi wasim iwant you to teach me how to swang the ball
Could I please have Wasim's e-mail/postal address? Am a bigtime fan of the cricketing legend.
Hi. Wasim bhai r u the greatest fast bolwer the world has ever seen. You r simply genius, marvellous and your class is matchless. Your decision of retiring from international cricket disappointed millions of your fans all around the world.
A man of your grandure can play cricket for 10 years. Pleaseeeeee come back to international cricket. Your fans want to see you in action once again.
East or west Wasim is the best!!. yes your are genius you are legend!!
please tell me the email & postal address of mr. wasim akram
hi akram bhai.how r u? u r my first image of cricket.I know u the first man of cricket in my life.i saw u in world cup 1992 first time
u r my hero
hi there waseem bhai , it was very sorry for the cricket lovers round the world that uyou have decided to retire from cricket arena , you are the legendary pacer of the right hand bowling action and it is true (universal truth )that there will be no one of your category in the near future but should say that it will be impossible for pakistan to produce such a nice and fine quality bowler .
well, it is not impossible for you to come back plzzzzzzzzzz change you decision and yes plz can i have your postal address plz .take care paal bye .