Top 51 Quotes & Sayings by Wasim Akram
Explore popular quotes and sayings by Wasim Akram.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
As a bowler you need to keep an eye on what the batsman is trying to do till the last moment.
I believe my actual job is that of a mentor. I don't just talk about bowling. I discuss batting, I discuss fielding, I discuss team selection, talking to every boy individually on and off the field, giving them confidence and if they are struggling with their cricket, talking to them about their cricket.
I learnt the slower ball in the post-1992 period after I saw Franklin Stevenson of the West Indies in the county circuit. I would practice in the nets, hit people on the head, have the ball fly over the nets. I got it right after a lot of practice.
I have toured Bangladesh plenty of times and the pitches were unbelievable.
I don't judge a player by T20 performance, I judge them from their performances in longer version of cricket.
It doesn't matter which era you play in. Wickets are the only way you can contain. Restricting the batsmen to six runs in the first over may look okay but in the next over they will hammer the other bowler. Giving ten runs and taking a wicket - I'll take that any day.
I was over the moon after bowling Chris Lewis and I was a little nervous about the hat-trick. You know it is a dream come true for any player to perform in the finals of a world cup.
I can make a good consultant, I can fine-tune bowlers, give them mental toughness, talk about how to bowl under pressure, how to bowl with the old ball.
It's things that you find difficult as a bowler in matches that you have to practise more. Some people don't, they just think line and length and forget about other things.
Coach isn't the one playing. The players do that. The coach can only help with planning so if the team loses, I don't think the coach is not as accountable as we hold him as a nation.
Test cricket is not easy. If you haven't played first-class cricket for five years, then your muscles aren't used to bowling for that long.
People think you get tired quickly when you are a diabetic. But I have taken about 190 wickets in One Day International matches after I was diagnosed for diabetes, and lots even in Test cricket, and never got tired.
I think it is time Pakistan has a cricket academy. In fact, they are thinking of having one; the sooner they have one the better it will be for Pakistan cricket.
T20 is amazing, good entertainment; there's plenty of money involved and I'm all in for the importance of money in a sport and the players.
I am not a fool. I keep on hearing and seeing the way people misbehave with their coaches and seniors.
You know, in pressure games everyone tests your skills on and off the field.
I think it's related. Batting and captaincy or bowling or captaincy. If you are doing your job well as a batsman, then the same confidence comes in to what you do as a leader.
I have always enjoyed taking on challenges.
Of course team spirit and team's strategy matters more than anything else as far as the team is concerned. As far as I am concerned, if the presence of one player is affecting the morale or the spirit of the team, then we might as well rest that player for a while.
You have to be prepared to go along the way life takes you.
I think what pace bowlers need to do in T20 cricket is not just run up and bowl fast. It's not about brute pace in T20, it's about the variation.
From the bowler's point of view, if I look at a batsman, I don't see his shots, I see his defence. If a player has a strong defence, he is a very good player.
In Pakistan, if you have to become a cricketer you have to be a politician first.
When I am in training I eat less carbs; when I'm not, I eat anything.
As a bowler, I was not scared of any batsman. They are not supposed to scare you; you have to scare them.
I think most of the people don't remember that we defeated Australia in the preliminary round match in 1999.
I was inspired by the great West Indian fast bowler Joel Garner's action. I gained confidence knowing I was emulating his action and eventually perfected the Yorker.
When I had a senior bowler guiding me as a young bowler, I had Imran bhai and I would ask him before every ball. It gives you that added confidence when a senior bowler tells you to do something.
Very simple; we cricketers feel more comfortable with foreign coaches. We feel they don't have any personal agendas against us and will be neutral. We feel we can trust them. That's what I felt as a cricketer.
Chris Gayle is the biggest hitter. He hits long, he hits big, he is a big dude.
Whenever you see Indian first class cricket on television, you see only a white wicket in a four-day game. And you have after five overs your spinners bowling from both ends on all four days. So how can you improve your cricket or your fast bowlers?
When you become the coach, you need to give at least 200 to 250 days a year to the team and that's a lot of work.
Australia has always been a very competitive team and I always enjoy playing and performing against them.
I have been saying for a long time that bowlers come in packs. When you have a senior bowler in the pack, he can guide the young bowlers in pressure situations by talking with them.
At 15, I was a tape-ball 'professional' and would take ten rupees per game to win matches for different teams.
I would have enjoyed Twenty20. A couple of things: it would have suited my batting style, and of course, it would have suited my bowling too. Because you need a lot of varieties in Twenty20.
When I started bowling with a cricket ball, I was quite nippy, because I was already used to exerting more energy with the tape ball. So by the time I made the switch, I had already strengthened my shoulders.
At times when you do think or imagine if I was young and playing against Virat Kohli where would I bowl and I do feel it would be a bit difficult to bowl at him. It doesn't matter what sort of pitch it is because he is a complete player.
Coaching is a very different skill. You need patience, you need a lot of organisation. I don't have any.
As a bowler our job is to create doubts in the minds of the batsmen.
As long as I have been playing internationally as a cricketer, no-one has ever come up to me, nor mentioned anything to me, nor offered me anything when it comes as regards these open flowing but stupid allegations of fixing matches etc.
Green wickets. That is why everybody wants to be a fast bowler instead of being a spinner or a batsman.
You have to assume as a bowler that the batsman is going to hit every ball that he will face. That's where as a bowler you have to fancy your chances. If he is going to hit you, you can dismiss him. That is the confidence I give to my bowlers.
When you become the coach, you need to give at least 200 to 250 days a year to the team and that's a lot of work. I don't think I can manage so much work away from Pakistan, from my family.
If you win one or two matches at home on good wickets, on grassy wickets, you'll develop confidence automatically.
Obviously fitness matters and at a certain age batsmen get the knack, batsmen get an idea how to get runs and I think he got the idea about 2-3 years ago how to get runs, what sort of shots to play and reading the situation.
Today, he showed the world why he is considered the best batsman around. Some of the shots he played were simply amazing. Earlier, opposing teams used to feel that Sachin's dismissal meant they could win the game. Today, I feel that the Indian players, too, feel this way.
Cricketers like Sachin come once in a lifetime and I am privileged he played in my time
I dont know what to bowl at him. I bowled an inswinger and he drove me through covers of the front foot. Then I bowled an outswinger and he again punched through covers of the backfoot. He is the toughest batsmen I've bowled to. He shold live long and score lots of runs, but not against Pakistan.
First of all, convince yourself that you are the best because the rest of your life is going to go proving this to others.
Indian batsmen, including Virat Kohli will find it difficult to score runs against Pakistan.
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