All hail the sultan of swing

Hailing him as one of the greatest bowlers ever, cricketers and administrators in Pakistan today heaped praises on Wasim Akram who bid farew...

Hailing him as one of the greatest bowlers ever, cricketers and administrators in Pakistan today heaped praises on Wasim Akram who bid farewell to international cricket yesterday.

Captain Rashid Latif, who is leading Pakistan in a triangular tournament in Sri Lanka, said he was sad to hear about Akram’s decision to retire.

In praise of the legend

• I don’t think we will see someone as naturally talented as him for a long time now. I have never seen a greater cricketer or sportsman than him. It is sad to hear about his retirment. But it was something that was playing on his mind for sometime now.
— Rashid Latif

• I reckon Wasim and West Indian Michael Holding are two of the best and most natural fast bowlers of the century. Grooming Wasim was the easiest thing because he was naturally gifted. All I ingrained in him was the ability to take wickets.
— Imran Khan

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• Wasim Akram was one of the greatest finds of Pakistan cricket in the last two decades. I still feel proud that I was the one who pushed him into the Pakistan team.
— Javed Miandad

• We do not want that 19 years of international experience of Wasim should go in waste. We would definitely like to use his experience for the promotion of the game in the country.
— PCB chief Lt Gen Tauqir Zia

“I don’t think we will see someone as naturally talented as him for a long time now. I have never seen a greater cricketer or sportsman than him,” Latif said.

Akram, who has a world record 502 wickets in one-day internationals apart from 414 scalps in Test cricket, was dumped out of the Pakistan team, along with some of the seniormost players, after the team’s disastrous campaign in the World Cup in South Africa earlier this year.

Even though his teammate Shoaib Akhtar returned to the squad for the triseries in Sri Lanka, Akram, currently playing county cricket in England, was ignored by the selectors.

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Legendary all-rounder and his former mentor Imran Khan rated Akram alongside Michael Holding of West Indies as two of the greatest bowlers the world has ever seen.

“I reckon Wasim and West Indian Michael Holding are two of the best and most natural fast bowlers of the century,” Imran Khan was quoted.

“Grooming Wasim was the easiest thing because he was naturally gifted. All I ingrained in him was the ability to take wickets,” Imran Khan said.

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