Legends of Cricket: Bettor.com’s World XI – Wasim Akram
Imagine yourself walking in a desert, thirsty, yearning for a drop of water. The sand burning under your feet, the hot sun dehydrating your debilitated body. You look around desperately for a saviour, and out of oblivion you see a man walking towards you
with a bottle of water, cold drips of sweat dripping down it. You will find yourself running towards the man, falling in his feet begging him to let you have some water. He lets you have one gulp of water and you will look back at him with imploring eyes,
begging some more.
Imagine a cricket fan having to look at the monotonous drill of watching a conventional bowler bowling repetitive deliveries and he will certainly find himself thirsty. Thirsty for something majestic, something out of the ordinary, something like cold water
in a desert or a breath of fresh air in a city of steel and emissions. Cricket is an old sport, a game of the gentlemen, the rich man’s game. If it was allowed to evolve in the traditional way, the arena would have been completely different. However ironically
a cricket fan finds himself thanking the squalid slums, villages and little towns in a metropolitan city, that have given this sport its most enduring heroes. Growing up in a small town in Lahore, Wasim Akram was that beautiful mistress of cricket that attracted
you to the sport like a magnet.
The cricket fan’s were like thirsty wayfarers in the desert, their eyes fixed in his direction asking him for more. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292 knew people were looking at him and he flirted wishfully with the cricket ball, leaving their thirst unquenched yet giving them
just enough. When it mattered, it was Wasim Akram who gave a hint of his true brilliance in the 1992 World Cup final, where he knocked two English players out in two consecutive deliveries and it would not be an understatement to say that the second ball to
Chris http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lewis-c72807 can easily be termed as the ball of the century.
He had his moments with the bat as well, and scored 33 runs in 21 balls in the same match to be awarded the player of the match. Wasim Akram was a revelation for cricket enthusiasts, like no other. His bowling action was unorthodox, unconventional out of
the ordinary. He ran down the pitch with a short run up and a ball concealing quick arm bowling action would whizz the ball through the air like a cruise missile, with Akram knowing where the ball would turn once it bounced.
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sultan-c91758 of swing, could produce magic on the cricket field. He could pull a Houdini with the ball, he could get Ponting and Gilchrist out with the first three deliveries in a One day match and then score 49 with the bat as well. Taking in excess of 900
wickets in both the formats of the game, this man is a revolutionary who popularized the art of reverse swing taught to him by Imran Khan himself.
The greatest left arm bowler of all times, was a good batsman as well with a highest test score of 257. This man was a wonder. The greatest cricketers of all times have sung praises in his name, in his contribution to the game. He had nerves of steel and
more importantly suffered from diabetes in the latter part of his cricketing days. However he did not let the condition affect his game. He had reached the heights of glory. He had achieved the impossible, the improbable.
According to a cricket historian Gideon Haigh, his “technique itself was actually one of cricket's great wonders, defying all the usual injunctions of coaches to perfect a balanced run of gathering speed and a smooth action of seamless grace. After a breakneck
sprint, Akram barrelled through the crease, front foot pointing down the pitch, back foot toward the sightscreen, arm a blur. That he was able to repeat this almost 41,000 times in international cricket beggars belief.”
In the words of Brian Lara, one of the greatest cricketers of all times, “Over my 15 or 16 years of playing international cricket in Tests and One Day Internationals, Wasim Akram is definitely the most outstanding bowler I've ever faced.”
Therefore we find Akram in Bettor.com’s world XI and surely no other player can take his place with the all time greatest.
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