Wasim Akramਵਸੀਮ ਅਕਰਮ

Wasim Akram was born on 3 June 1966 in Lahore, into a Punjabi Arain family. His father, Chaudhary Muhammad Akram, had come from Chawinda Devi, a village near Amritsar, and the family moved to Pakistani Punjab after the Partition of 1947. The boy who grew up playing tape-ball cricket in Lahore would become, by general agreement, one of the greatest fast bowlers the game has seen.

From Lahore tape-ball to the Pakistan team

Akram was educated at Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore, but cricket, not the classroom, claimed him. He played tape-ball cricket, joined the Ludhiana Gymkhana club in Lahore, and was spotted at selection trials at the Gaddafi Stadium, where the senior batsman Javed Miandad insisted the unknown teenager be picked for Pakistan. He made his one-day international debut against New Zealand on 23 November 1984 and his Test debut against the same opponents on 25 January 1985; in only his second Test he took ten wickets in the match.

A decade with Lancashire, from 1988 to 1998, made him a folk hero in English county cricket as well. As captain in 1998 he led the club to the NatWest Trophy and the Sunday League title, and the Old Trafford crowd used to sing 'Wasim for England' at the county's matches.

The 1992 World Cup final

The defining performance came at Melbourne in the 1992 World Cup final against England. Akram first struck a quick 33 off 19 balls to lift Pakistan to 249, then, with England recovering, returned to the attack and bowled Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis with successive deliveries, two balls that swung late and are still replayed whenever the tournament is remembered. Pakistan won its only World Cup, and Akram was named Man of the Match in the final.

Why is he called the Sultan of Swing?

The nickname rests on craft. Akram could swing the new ball both ways at high pace, and with the old ball he was the finest exponent of reverse swing, the art of making a worn ball move late and sharply. Bowling left-arm off a short, quick run-up, he hid the ball until the last moment, which made his changes of direction almost impossible to read. With Waqar Younis he formed one of the great opening partnerships in cricket history, the two Ws who defined Pakistan's attack through the 1990s.

Records that still stand

The numbers explain the reputation. In 104 Tests he took 414 wickets, still the most by a Pakistani, at an average of 23.62, and scored 2,898 runs, including an unbeaten 257 against Zimbabwe in 1996, the highest score by a number eight batsman in Test history. In 356 one-day internationals he took 502 wickets, the first bowler in history to reach 500 in the format, a landmark he crossed at the 2003 World Cup. He took four hat-tricks in international cricket, two in Tests and two in one-day internationals, and his 881 wickets in List A cricket remain a world record. Wisden named him in its all-time Test World XI in 2013, and in 2002 rated him the best one-day bowler of all time.

He was a genuine all-rounder with the bat as well. Alongside the unbeaten 257 against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura in 1996, he scored two other Test centuries, and his late-order hitting changed matches that Pakistan seemed to have lost. Captains trusted him with the new ball, the old ball and the closing overs alike, and younger fast bowlers around the world studied his action, his disguised slower ball and his mastery of the yorker.

Captaincy and the later years

Akram captained Pakistan through much of the 1990s and led the side to the 1999 World Cup final, where Australia won. His later career also drew match-fixing allegations; none of them was proven. At thirty he had been diagnosed with diabetes, and he managed the condition through the rest of his playing days; since retirement he has been involved in diabetes awareness campaigns.

Life after retirement

He retired after the 2003 World Cup and moved into coaching and commentary: bowling coach with Kolkata Knight Riders, roles with Islamabad United and Multan Sultans, and, from 2018, president of Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009 and received Pakistan's Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 2019. He married Huma Mufti in 1995; after her death in 2009, he married Shaniera Thompson in 2013, and the family lives in Karachi.