Sultan: A Memoir

by Wasim Akram

In the current team, Babar Azam, Abdullah Shafique, Imam ul Haq, Usman Qadir and Azam Khan are all sons, cousins or nephews of former players.

None of them is important. There are tons of players with no connections. Babar’s cousins were out to get him.

would ride, preparatory to watching the movies ourselves, from both Bollywood and its Lahore counterpart Lollywood. I

read about him in Akbari e Watan, an Urdu cricket magazine;

Eventually, inevitably, I came off it.

Off what?

Ludhiana Gymkhana is gone now; Waris Road no longer hosts cricket; vanished also is the University Ground, where I would climb over the railing and play with my friends Zulfiquar, Shahid and Shahbaz on the days I wasn’t at Ludhiana. Urban sprawl and the elimination of precious green space has more or less annihilated sporting clubs in big cities like Lahore; it is a key reason for their decline

relative to regional cities as cradles for cricket talent.

I bought a pair of white pants from Lambda Bazaar

The coaching centre at National Stadium was part of a precinct containing hockey pitches, table tennis courts, a gymnasium and an athletic track – now, alas, like Ludhiana, long gone.

Pakistan Cricketer, which called me ‘Wasim Ashraf’.

For all his batting skill, Ramiz was at slip for reasons of rank, because his father was a commissioner and because he’d attended Aitchison College – he dropped more than he caught, frankly.

Baoodata (‘Big Balls’),

‘Salim aleikum Imran,’ I said haltingly.

‘Wale cum salaam, Wasim,’

Pakistan Cricketer.

I was unaware of any undercurrents when we hosted Sri Lanka for three largely uneventful Tests in late 1985,

I remember this series so well. This is when I fell in love with the languidityof test cricket

Sometimes you meet a hero and it is disappointing. 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. When he was at home, in Zaman Park near the other Niazis, he was always seeking me out. I was his project.

sibar – ‘the opposite way’.

Wassat?

Pakistanis called the venue Har Shahar, which means ‘lose’.

York Giants’s Bob Thomson,

Huh?

There was a divide in the Pakistani team at the time between those who spoke mostly English, like Imran, Mudassar, Zaheer and Mohsin Khan, and those who did not, such as Saleem Malik.

But I did so in English – another little milestone in my career.

It was a period of unrest in South Asia. India and Pakistan were jostling militarily on their border.

Both countries nourished nuclear ambitions. General Zia had identified with Imran’s team, and pushed a policy called ‘Cricket for Peace’ to normalise diplomatic relations. As part of it, we were sent to play five Tests in India – as it turned out, the last series of that duration involving our two countries. That gave our captain a kind of quasi-ambassadorial status – in India, he was the personification of Pakistan.

It was probably a greater blow for diplomatic relations than Zia turning up to watch the subsequent Test.

Greater blow? How is it a blow?

Rafan.

Mansoor sent Ramiz back and ran him out, then was bowled by Craig McDermott, who also bowled me after I’d slogged two sixes.

The boys never let me forget the occasion of the awarding of my county cap by Lancashire divinity Cyril Washbrook. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he told the audience, ‘please welcome Wasli Akrow.’

Islamic Democratic Alliance

strong in Sindh,

‘He’s Elton John,’ Imran confided. I was none the wiser.

the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan

When we were offered a bottled water sponsorship by Pepsi, for example, he turned it down on the grounds there was nothing wrong with tap water.

That doosra – Punjabi for ‘the other one’ –

the News

I had been told that the Chennai crowd had a reputation for sportsmanship, but what happened next I still find very moving. Somehow, in our euphoria, we suddenly thought of taking a victory lap. ‘Should we?’ I asked Shaharyar. ‘Go ahead,’ he said. ‘You will be making history.’ So it was that the 40,000 locals still in the stadium took it into their hearts to applaud us all the way.

Everyone wanted to board our bandwagon. Nawaz Sharif began calling me every other day, with comments on our previous game and urgings for our next.

from something like early favouritism,

But because we did not win every game, because sometimes other teams outplayed us, we had to be crooks.

Zia had got rid of his predecessor Ali Bhutto, Benazir’s father,

Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, who had been director-general of military operations in the Kargil War,

On our return to Pakistan, Tauqir was petitioned night and day by my rivals, such as Waqar and Saeed.

Younis Khan,

Humble, hardworking, a straight arrow – I would take a lot of pleasure in his success.

But being Muslim could be complicated – even more so after September 11, one of whose many immediate consequences for cricket was the cancellation of an anticipated New Zealand tour of Pakistan.

I liked to indulge myself; I liked to party.

In her honour

It is an environment that breeds temperamental, insecure, inconsistent teams.

Speak for yourself