Wasim Akram - The Cricketers That Shaped Me
At times he looked like he was out for a jog, casually floating into the crease and then came the explosion. A swing of his left arm so quick, the batsman had half a blink to register the shine, the seam and the trajectory. More often than not, the bowl would swing…no maybe that’s wrong, it would sing. I had the pleasure of watching Wasim Akram bowling in the nets at Lords and he could make the bowl play a tune. Maybe it was the whip in his arm or the speed of the bowl but there was an audible hiss. Only a split second but it was there, or at least my 10-year-old ears thought so.
For you to fully understand why Wasim Akram, the cricketer mattered so much to me, you have to understand why fast bowling means so much to me. In cricket, there are three distinct arts: batting, bowling and wicket keeping. As long as I can remember, the batsman has had the cards stacked in his favour, with pitches, boundaries and the very rules of this game designed to make him superior.
The bowler however must struggle and fight, scratching his way through the dirt and hoping for the odd bit of cloud or the life giving sign of a green pitch. As a kid, wanting to bat was easy, we all wanted to do it. Hit a six out over the garden fence? Check. Easy. But to bowl quick, to get the small, spherical object to dance in mid-air? Much more difficult. That belonged to the immortals. I was lucky enough to grow up watching Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee and a handful of other immortals. Wasim Akram stood at the top of that pile. He was the impossible that I aspired to.
Suffice to say, I never became much of a bowler and batting/keeping is the direction that I went towards but even then, it was Akram who was forefront of my imagination. The swashbuckling lower order destroyer, eater of worlds, conqueror of boundaries. Am I exaggerating? Probably but he does have a test double. As the years wore on, so did Akram. He was no longer a 90 mph screamer. The pace had slowed, the destruction was limited and sporadic, yet the magic still remained.
Even in the dying dawn of the 2003 world cup, as an era came to an end, Akram was defiant till the end, with 12 wickets across 6 games. Admittedly, 5 of them game against the lowly Namibians but he showed there was still one last roar in the old lion. That was in complete contrast to, in my opinion anyway, Akram’s greatest test bowling performance: back to back 5 wicket hauls against the Windies, in the same test. Eleven wickets in total. Reverse swing befuddling the lower order and sharp, new ball bowling making a mockery of the top. To do so in the fire of Antigua aged 34 was even more remarkable.
If great moments define a great sports person, then surely Wasim Akram must be one of the truly great ones. World cup magic, away test dreams and a dazzling swing of the bat to go with the ball. To say Akram was nigh on a perfect fast bowler would be hyperbole but is there anyone who has come closer? Probably not, although some may raise names such as Marshall or Lillee but did they have to compete on the graveyard pitches of Pakistan and the UAE on a monthly basis? I don’t think so. Akram is the type of cricketer who lights up a child’s imagination.
In the years that followed Akram's retirement, I would move through high school and life in general, sporting, academic, it didn't matter because as things got tough I think back to the lion of Antigua or the dying embers of the 03 world cup. Even when it's hard, it's never really that hard. I think that's what he taught me.
