Wasim Akram talks about cricket in the Caribbean and match fixing too!

Wasim Akram is one of my all-time favorite cricketers. The guy just exudes that special love of the cricket game, not to mention tremendous confidence in himself. Simply, he is as phenomenal a performer as you will find in any sport, despite always being, from some quarter or other, seemingly under severe external stimuli. Maybe he simply thrives on adversity.

Yet, if you were to look at him now, heading for his 34th birthday in June, just as the 1st Test against the West Indies is about to begin, you will find no-one anywhere enjoying his cricket more than Wasim Akram. His great enthusiasm for the cricket fray is unreal.

That is a tremendous thought, when one recognizes that since making his international debut for Pakistan, in 1984/85, aged 18, against New Zealand at Auckland for Test matches, and against New Zealand at Faisalabad for One Day Internationals, Wasim Akram has played in a mind-boggling 303 One Day Internationals and an equally impressive 92 Test matches.

For that effort, he has 2503 runs in Tests, at an average of 21.57, his best being 257 not out, and, a whopping 383 Test wickets, at a very acceptable average of 23.12 runs each. In One Day Internationals, he has 3213 runs at an ordinary average of 16.22 runs per innings, but a stupendous 423 wickets at that similarly acceptable average of 23.64 runs per wicket. More mind-combobulating is the fact that even after all of this extended play in ODI's, Wasim's runs per over (RPO) average is still under that accepted benchmark economy rate of 4.00 runs per over. His economy rate in ODI's is still only 3.84, while for Tests, it is a tremendously misery 2.61 runs per over.

With these figures as a reference, no-one should begrudge me the fact that I admire Wasim as one of the best cricketers and producers to have ever played the game of cricket, period!! I would not even add the fact that he captained Lancashire County Cricket Club, the club I played for in the county circuit in the 70's, with his usual success too. He won many a trophy there as captain in the recent years!!

The man is leaner now, perhaps all of 10 kilograms lighter than his World Cup persona last year, perhaps fitter than ever before, and even more determined than he has ever been. According to Wasim:

"I am enjoying my game tremendously. I have worked tremendously hard, doing weight training and everything else to become this fit for this tour. I know that I am one of the older boys on the team, with much experience, but the younger boys have to look up to us, use us as the examples, to help them out. That is why I am enjoying this so much. I am like a big brother helping the youngsters. This is a total team effort"

Of course, Wasim has been captain of Pakistan for at least two fairly prolonged periods, the last time ending with his decision to step down just before the present West Indies tour started. That would mean that he would have been captain of his national team when, allegedly, the height of all the present bribery and match-fixing stuff, would have been perpetuated by those players yet to be identified, or at least, named.

Indeed, one particular game, Pakistan v Bangladesh at Northampton in the 1999 World Cup, a game which was either seen, heard or read about by at least a billion people, one-sixth of the world's population; whose result was probably instrumental in Bangladesh (soon) becoming a Test playing nation; is supposed to be one of the highly suspicious games, very much under the international microscope, involved in the entire bribery/match-fixing scenario. Wasim was captain of Pakistan for that period which included the 1999 Cricket World Cup.

Since I believe truly that any team which could be involved with such activities must have some definite and substantial input from the captain, I endeavored to ask Wasim himself about the allegations, counter allegations etc. I also asked him how he thought the Test series would go:

Colin Croft (CC): The next game is the (1st) Test match. This is a very important game. Pakistan have won the one day series, but a Test match is altogether different.

Wasim Akram (WA): Yeah!! It is a very important series for us and I think for the West Indies as well, because they are in the process of the rebuilding of the side, and Pakistan have got the confidence back with the youngsters really performing well in the one-day series. We know this is our only chance, or at least one of the only chances where we can win the (Test) series in the West Indies.

CC: (If that happens) This would have been the first time ever that Pakistan will have won a Test series in the West Indies. Is that a big incentive?

WA: Yeah!! I think that it is a big incentive, both personally and as a team goal. I remember that whenever we came here, we got hammered by the West Indies, so this is a time at least when we can try to win the series.

CC: Well, reflect a bit on the one-day series. The batting was not so good and you as a bowler would have enjoyed that, but even Pakistan's batting struggled a little bit.

WA: Yeah, I think it had a lot to do with a lot of the one-day tracks (pitches) over here where the ball was not sort of coming on to the bat as is usual and expected in one-day games. That was the main reason. I think that the Test cricket will be a totally different ball-game altogether.

CC: Well, you have got three fast bowlers, even four really, in Waqar Younis, yourself, Shoaib Akhtar and now Shabir is back, plus bowling all-rounder Abdur Razzaq, and you also have got two good spinners too, in Mustaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq. That is a very good bowling attack indeed.

WA: Of course we have much variety in our bowling, a lefthander, a leg-spinner, a right-arm very fast bowler, Waqar Younis, who is doing very well again, plus the best off-spinner in the world, Saqlain Mustaq, so we have great variety in our attack. We need to get runs on the board and that would give us a great chance to do well in the series as a team.

CC: As a team, you suggest 'do well'. Are you predicting a win for Pakistan?

WA: I will love to project that, but, like I said before, the confidence is there, and the team spirit is there, so where the team and the sport is concerned, I expect us to do very well.

CC: Well, new subject now. One had to be dead not to have heard of this match fixing business recently. For some reason(s) which is(are) not altogether fully clear yet, India and Pakistan have been mentioned regularly, especially during the time you were captain. What is your take on all of this?

WA: I think that we have been through all of the processes and as far as myself is concerned, I know, by the grace of God, I have not done anything wrong, so nobody can point their finger at me. That is why I am still playing, enjoying myself and continuing to do well. If people in authority of cricket are mentioning Pakistan and India, it means simply that they want to divert the attention from whatever has happened from their own cricket scenario at home.

CC: There is one game that I attended, and even did commentary at, that (1999) World Cup game featuring Bangladesh v Pakistan, at Northampton. Quite frankly, if you guys "threw" that game, you did it well and at least fooled me. I did not see it. I think that Bangladesh won the game fairly, but now, that particular game, more or less, is very much under the microscope. Why do you think that is?

WA: It is very annoying to listen to those people trying to take away any credit from Bangladesh and saying that Pakistan played bad cricket on that day. We tried our best and we got beaten by the better side on the day. We wanted to chase in that game and to get some confidence back, but we did not cope well with the Bangladeshi bowling. Bangladesh played the game well, fair and square, and they won the game well, too, fair and square.

CC: So, Wasim, you would suggest to me and the world that under your captaincy, Pakistan and its cricket was squeaky clean, absolutely no problem with any such activities as match fixing etc. No problem at all?

WA: Yeah!! Everything is fine, and has been fine under my captaincy or any other captaincy, for that matter. As long as I have been playing internationally as a cricketer, no-one has ever come up to me, nor mentioned anything to me, nor offered me anything when it comes as regards these open flowing but stupid allegations of fixing matches etc. I am not worried about anything, since I have nothing to worry about."

When the cricket starts on Friday next, at least Wasim will be in his element, happily worrying about how he could muster his troops, as the team's sergeant-major, to try to direct them through some path to winning the 1st Test against the West Indies. As still one of the best cricketers in the game today, and, in my mind, still Pakistan's bowling trump card, expect some fireworks from Wasim.

He seldom disappoints!