Pakistan bowling great Wasim Akram has said that Pakistan and India should play series at U-16 ad junior levels. Speaking at an Indian TV channel, he said: “We should have regular contests in all sports from the under 16, under 19 levels. India-Pakistan games are pressure games. Once a player knows to handle the pressure in these matches he can play against all other teams,” said Akram.
Akram, who represented his country in 104 Tests and 356 ODIs between 1985 and 2003, wanted India and Pakistan to engage in sports at all levels. Asked about the most memorable moments in his cricket career, Akram – one of the best-ever left-arm fast bowlers in the history of the game – singled out three instances.
“Our World Cup victory in 1992 (under Imran Khan), and the Test series victory over India in 1987 and our wins in India in 1999,” he said. Pakistan defeated India at Chennai before the hosts avenged the defeat in Delhi in the two-Test rubber. In another Test immediately afterwards in Kolkata, part of the now defunct Asian Test Championship, the visitors vanquished the home team.
Akram singled out the overwhelming loss in the World Cup final of 1999 to Australia, in which he led his country, as his most forgettable moment. Asked about the top batsmen he had bowled to, the Lahore-born Akram said there were quite a few. “In the beginning there was (India’s) Sunil Gavaskar. Later there were Allan Border, Mark Taylor, the Waugh brothers (all Australians) and then (West Indian) Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and England’s Alec Stewart who I found difficult to bowl to,” he said.
Akram also said that over the last four or five years the Pakistan cricket team lacked a proper role model. “They had Shoaib as one,” he remarked in jocular vein. Akram, a diabetic, said he was at first worried when he was diagnosed with the disease in 1987 but then after a two-month break to take treatment came back and took over 250 wickets each in both Tests and ODIs.
Akram, who had slammed erstwhile teammate and fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar for his disparaging comments in his autobiography “Controversially Yours” against top Indian batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, in a lighter vein, remarked the temperamental former cricketer may be lacking brains.
“Batsmen of the calibre of Tendulkar and Dravid are not afraid of fast bowlers. At times they may just block a bowler like me or eschew strokes to preserve their wickets,” he said. At the TV programe, former Indian hockey captain also backed Wasim’s views. He said India-Pakistan sports encounters helped a sportsperson’s mental toughness to take on any other team in the world as they grew up in their particular discipline.
“The hockey players should be paid Rs 25,000 per international match. We used to subsist on a meagre allowance of USD 20 when we played for the country. We could not even invite our friends for a cup of coffee at the top hotels we stayed in or else go out of pocket,” said Pillay at the India International Sports Summit here.
