News Wasim Akram’s lament for Pakistani cricket and Imran Khan : ‘ He was my mentor , My friend. I miss him ’
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Wasim Akram has been talking for half an hour.
The former Pakistan cricketer is in fabulously open and foul-mouthed form, holding court on everything from his love of England, particularly Lancashire where he played county cricket for a decade, to his thoughts on The Hundred. “I’m so f*****g confused by it,” he offers of English cricket’s short-form franchise game.
He is equally forthright with his opinions on recent trends such as ‘wobble seam’ bowling and wicketkeepers standing up to pace bowlers. “If a keeper had even suggested it to me,” he says, “I’d have knocked his f*****g block off with a bouncer next ball!”
But when, 30 minutes in, the discussion turns to the man who had more impact on Wasim’s cricketing career than any other, the answers become more hushed and halting. “Imran Khan was my mentor,” he says. “He’s my friend, I miss him a lot. I haven’t spoken to him for three years.
“It’s so unfortunate, politically, what’s happening with him. The court of law is the court of law. But as far as his health is concerned, there can be no compromise on that.”
The desperation of Imran’s situation has been laid bare in the last few weeks.
The 73-year-old former prime minister and captain of Pakistan has been in prison for three years serving sentences for corruption charges he vehemently denies. His deteriorating health has drawn the focus of late as his sons Kasim and Sulaiman, both from Imran’s first marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, attempt to secure him proper healthcare having voiced fears he may not survive in prison.
There have been concerns an eye condition, of which he has been complaining for some time, is worsening to the point that there are fears he may be losing much of the sight in his right eye.
The Pakistan government rejected allegations that Imran had been mistreated in prison or denied contact with his family and lawyers in a statement issued to the Associated Press last month, insisting the former prime minister had received more than 900 visits from his family, lawyers and doctors since his imprisonment began in August 2023.
At lunch on day two of the Lord’s Test match, much to the PCB’s frustration, Sky Sports broadcast an 18-minute interview with Imran’s sons in which they expressed fears for their father’s life. The brothers claimed their father was being kept in a “very small cell without any new books” for 23 hours a day, with “no proper air conditioning in summer”.
“The last time he was able to speak to our aunties and anyone else, he said the conditions have severely worsened recently,” said Kasim. “Right now it is worse than ever, completely isolating him more than 23 hours a day in a cell.”
After the broadcast went out, the PCB lodged a formal complaint with Sky Sports while Pakistan’s players briefly threatened not to return to the field for the afternoon session. That decision, had it been followed through, would have resulted in the match being forfeited and a tumult of political and financial ramifications. As it was, talks held with the ECB allayed those fears.
Wasim, speaking from his home in Lahore, saw the interview, which was conducted by his former Lancashire team-mate Michael Atherton.
“There was a bit of uproar here after that,” he says. “I then read that the Pakistani government came up with how many visits he (Imran) has had, with all the numbers included, with all the phone calls he has had. But, you know, it’s difficult to believe, and hard to know what to believe right now.”
Given the thorniness of the situation, does Wasim feel able to talk about it freely?
“I’m OK,” he says. “As long as I don’t get too into the politics or the legal side of things I can speak my mind, nobody will tell me what to do. I’m talking to you now, I’m speaking my mind and this is what’s on my mind. I don’t want to get involved in politics, I’m not a politician.
“Whatever decision has been made by the court of law… we have to… all of us kind of have to go along with it.”
Greats of the game from Steve Waugh to Sachin Tendulkar line the pages of ‘Sultan’, Wasim’s 2022 memoir, to laud his talent and skill. But the one man to influence and guide him was his childhood hero, Imran.
“Sometimes you meet a hero and it is disappointing,” he wrote in his book. “I had met mine, and he wasn’t. Just to spend time with him was a privilege. He was so poised, so magnetic, always with a book in his hand, addressing you in that calm, bass voice and Oxford accent. To my bowling he gave his complete attention… he was always seeking me out. I was his project.”
“Even after we retired, him and me, we were regularly in touch,” Wasim tells The Athletic. “I used to go and spend time with him. I miss talking to him. I miss him in general as a friend, politics apart.”
It’s clearly painful for Wasim to comprehend the situation facing his former mentor and captain, but those last two words — “politics apart” — hint at a guardedness.
That is evident in nearly all dialogue about Imran’s situation. “It’s important to stress that this is a humanitarian plea rather than getting involved in the politics of Pakistan,” Atherton said on Sky Sports before the broadcast of the interview with Imran’s sons.
The former England captain, now a journalist and broadcaster, is one of 22 former international cricket captain signatories of a letter sent to the Pakistan government calling for Khan to receive “immediate, adequate and ongoing medical attention”.
“There’s a movement in England and elsewhere (to improve Imran’s conditions) but here (in Pakistan)? I’m not so sure,” says Wasim. “But… I’m speaking from the heart as someone who is worried about him as a person. Convicted or not convicted. Jail or no jail.
“We need to safeguard his health. We don’t know what’s happening, the government are saying his health apparently is fine. But I’m worried. I miss him a lot.”
Wasim was one of the most captivating fast bowlers the game has seen, a left-armer capable of swinging the ball into and away from batters at searing pace. In an international career spanning the mid-eighties to the early 2000s he took 414 Test wickets for Pakistan and claimed 502 one-day international (ODI) scalps. That latter tally is the most of any fast bowler in history.
The great West Indian batter Brian Lara told the Melbourne radio station 1116 SEN that Wasim was the best bowler he faced and that he could “make you look really stupid”.
Even the permanently unflappable Viv Richards once admitted to having nightmares about a bouncer that Wasim fizzed past the end of his nose in a match in Hobart in 1988, adding in ‘Sultan’ that it was the quickest ball he had faced. “The mind still boggles that he said that about me,” Wasim says, incredulously.
But times have changed since the days when Wasim and Waqar Younis struck terror into the hearts of opposition lineups with the ferocity of their bowling, or Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq made hay with the bat.
Wasim is talking to The Athletic in the days after the PCB ejected seven players from their touring squad in England.
Their head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and head selector, the former captain Misbah-ul-Haq, have been moved along or decided to jump aboard the frantically spooling conveyor belt of coaches, captains and selectors that has served to destabilise Pakistan’s Test side over the last half a decade.
On Monday, the PCB announced they would be holding a disciplinary inquiry into behaviour on the tour following media reports concerning discipline and conduct. “The Pakistan Cricket Board has initiated an internal disciplinary inquiry following media reports concerning discipline and conduct, which are currently being reviewed internally,” read a PCB statement. “The PCB handles such matters in accordance with its standard procedures.
“The process is being conducted under PCB regulations, ensuring that all concerned individuals are given due consideration. At this stage, any speculative reports or unverified claims circulating on certain platforms, particularly those originating from hostile external sources, should not be regarded as credible.”
None of those removed from the tour has spoken publicly.
A decade on since they topped the ICC’s world rankings, Pakistan, 2-0 down with the third and final Test starting at Edgbaston on Wednesday, prop up the World Test Championship. They have lost 15 of their last 20 matches.
It is hard not to have sympathy for the players. Wasim agrees. “But in Pakistan we have a saying: ‘You can only clap with two hands’,” he adds, suggesting the mentality of some of the players does not help quell the maelstrom.
“I knew before the series we were going to lose 3-0 to England,” says Wasim. “Our batting is struggling, our bowling is below average and our fielding is worse. It’s not rocket science.
“I get asked all the time, ‘Can you do something to help Pakistan cricket?’ But the issues are a lot deeper. These are the top players, there’s nothing else there. The systems aren’t there below that. The first-class structure domestically has been all over the place the last few years and there’s no consistency, no patience.
“That dribbles down to the fans, too. They see the team lose and they want to rip it all up, too. We’ve done that so many times and now there is nothing really left.”
A once great Test nation will attempt to pluck a consolation win from a dismal series at Edgbaston. Wasim will be watching on from afar, wondering where they go from here.
