Wasim emphasises Pakistan should have bowled first

MANCHESTER: If there is any Pakistan Test cricketer who knows the Old Trafford wicket inside out it is Wasim Akram. And had Inzamam-ul-Haq sought his advice before going in to bat in the second Test here against England on Thursday, Wasim would have told him: “Bowl first if you win the toss”.

But in spite of the fact that Wasim was in Manchester, nobody from the Pakistan camp made an effort to contact Wasim, a legendary left-arm paceman of all times. Inzamam did win the toss but decided to bat first only to see his team getting bundled out for 119.

“I believe Pakistan should have taken advice from somebody who has played on this wicket and who knows it well,” Wasim said here, barely disguising the fact that he was talking about himself.

He was asked by this correspondent: “Did anybody from the Pakistan team contact you for advice?” His answer: “Nobody did that and I don’t know why. I believe they could have got useful tips from me.”

The former Pakistan captain has played for Lancashire, for whom Old Trafford is a home ground, for over a decade and is regarded as a local hero in Manchester. The city is, in fact, his second home as Wasim mostly spends his summers here.

Wasim said it is a traditional Old Trafford track which is dry and hard.

“Any team winning the toss would be lured into batting first here. But anybody with the experience of playing here would know better,” he said.

If Wasim were the skipper, he would have bowled first after winning the toss. “England just have one dangerous bowler — Steve Harmison. Probably Pakistan thought they would see him off. But on this bouncy wicket, they should have known better.”

Wasim praised Harmison for his great spell on the opening day but took a swipe at some of the Pakistani batsmen whom he said just threw away their wickets, saying, “(Mohammad) Yousuf and Younis (Khan) were so well settled but got out on average deliveries while playing poor shots. They could have easily taken Pakistan to a safer position.”

Wasim expressed that Inzamam was the only Pakistani batsman to get a brute of a delivery from Harmison while the rest of the batsmen just crumbled.

He added that he cannot find any logic behind Pakistan’s decision to play two spinners — Danish Kaneria and Shahid Afridi — in the match. “I don’t think they (Pakistan) read the wicket correctly. You need more pacers on this pitch,” the fast bowling icon reckoned.

Wasim opined Pakistan should have fielded left-arm medium pacer Samiullah Niazi in the match.

“I haven’t seen him but I get from reports, he is a talented, young fast bowler. I’ve heard he was especially called from Pakistan for this series and can’t understand why he is not playing this Test.”

With no forecast of any rain over the next few days, Wasim believes only a miracle can save Pakistan here, saying, “They scored very few runs and conceded a lot. There are still three days left in this match and frankly it seems our team doesn’t have much chance left.”

someone should ask him if he knew soo much about the wicket and cared for his country he would tell inzi himself. this guy thinks too high of himself

what rot! the pak team should have seeked his advice but no, they don't need any advice, they can handle it on their own. No one would know that pitch better than the Master himself. Old trafford was a 'home away from home ' primarily because of him. They indeed should have seeked his opinion and well the results are here...

for once he should have helped without the need for someone to approach him he always wants someone to come to him probaly to bring a nice cheque while there speaking to him aswell

people who are IN NEED go to the person who CAN HELP. Not vice versa per se. If A doesn't want advice, why should B go about giving it?

A nice cheque - Should I stoop so low as to respond to it with a proper argument? Nah, no point hitting the sewer system.

Also calls in to quesiton, what was waqar doing?? useless

in hindsight is no good Wasim Bhai.

should of been vocal about day b4 match started.

some one tell him we would had bowled first in WC99 final

lol, what a joker

Its easy to say it after the fact. We batted poorly plain and simple. I would have batted first seeing how it is goign to break up. Had we got 300 on teh board, he wouldn't say much.

the legend who has played there for a decade is being told about hindsight

well amidst the gloom of our match, our ppers never fail to cheer up.

Legend, 80 year old man, baby whoever...it does not matter who tehy are to be told about hindsight.

Any idiot, even ones who don't watch cricket can say "ERrr you should have bowled first" after being dismissed for 119. THANK YOU CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!

I'm still optimistic, only a little.....But as for his outburst in the media, why did PCB hire Waqar and not him....It seems to me Wasim has bigger ego problems and enjoys when pakistan isn't doing well, so he can criticize the team and feed his most benevolent ego....

agreed !


but if memory serves last time when inzi & bob took wasim's advice in 2004 champion's trophy semi-final at rose bowl..........pakistan lost quite comprehensively.

so i can understand why they did not go back for some more advice, but in my opinion they should have sought his advice this time.

Wasim is a legend but i have to say his ego has always been a problem...

we're quick to worry about his ego, what about the ego of thoe that don't go for help?


The Master should have his ego, fully deserving!

The guy has played there a decade, give me a break. Hindsight? yeah! good word to use. i should try it sometime. all the fashion nowadays.

No one can blame Inzi for batting. It looked like a clear batting pitch. He should have publicized that Pak should bowl first. He thinks so much of himself, and doesn't think he should "intrude" into Pakistan's private cricketing matters.

it was imply bad batting performance. It was not like we keep on loosing wickets on regular basis but ir was cllapse of our batting. We were looking good at 93/2 but after that it went wrong.

now AFTER WC 99 final, many of believe as well that Pak would have bowled first. Saying something after things have happed already, it's easy job to do

Oh now our team has a ego since they didn't go to him for help? I guess in that case, we have to go to Javed, Imran, Hanif, Qadir and everyone to seek help since they were legends too.

Our team is so full of themselves. Have time to practice but not time to conctact all our past greats on what to do. I mean why have a coach ? not like he has provided tatics or even won us a test series. WE sohuld just have a panels of coaches formed of our past greats which we call here adn there.

hyperboles, hyperboles...

from no where did it look like a batting pitch, davild Lloyd (bumble) 10 days before during the Lord's test said on air " OT pitches are usually hard, bouncy and pacey" for those of you who dont know who bumble (David lloyd) is, he was the coach/manager of Lancashire , when wasim played for LAnc's in a matter of fact he was the one who made wasim the captain

Most people bat first on hard bouncy pitches. If you remember, Australia batted first at Perth against us and got 400 on the board. Like Isaid, we did the right thing but played poor strokes.

no actually if you have some one available at your disposal at manchester, then why on earth not have a word with him, im sure waqar younis has had his fair share with wasim in the past etc , but still the guy is an absolute legend of the game, wouldn't have hurt if bob or inzi himself had asked his view's .

anyway all is not lost we could still do this ...inshAllah.

Ask whos views Waqar or Wasim? I am sure Waqar gave his advice and Wasim as always seem to give it a bit late.

I am sick of people saying Inzi and Bob should go out of there way. They are trying to plan how to win a test series, and they must be confident in themselves. They don't haev time to go out here and there for each person and ask for advice. Espicialyl for someone not part of the team structure.

Australian wicket's are quite different to english wicket's, with aussie wicket's you literally know what you are going to be getting e.g sydney spinner's paradise .

thing is, win the toss and make the right decision, make full use of the advantage you have gained, and it's not that inzi is the first n only captained to have given the initiative away, a lot of captains do, nasser hussain, ricky ponting , the man wasim akram himself must have, all part of the game , my question is "why not ask a cricketer who has played most of his life at the very ground about condition's etc" ?

at the end of the day it is going to benefit/affect pakistan .

In that case, just ask some local Lanacshire cricketer. The ground is not the same as it was 5 years ago. In 2001 it was not bouncy or hard, it was this season they changed the surface. Why not Ask Flintoff?

with all due respect to bob & inzi, i can understand they want other's to know that they are in charge , and in a matter of fact they are the one's who really are, BUT one phone call or a quick hello hi chat wouldn't have hurt, saw wasim sat in the crowd & he definitely did not look happy .

im sure inzi and bob must have done a lot of hard work before the match , but in future if you can extract some useful information from any ex-player, then by all mean's do .

4th test is at oval, and waqar has played a lot of his county cricket for surrey im sure he would have his valuable input there being the coach, my point is if he was around in london same time when the oval test match was about to begin and he was not the bowling coach of pakistan, he still should have been approached.

taken from the OP "“Any team winning the toss would be lured into batting first here. But anybody with the experience of playing here would know better,” he said.


now that does tell you a lot about something called "Experience".

Than why need ot ask Wasim? Just ask the OP! My point is, yeah sure they could ask Wasim and it would have helped. But fi Wasim was in the crowd, does it hurt to go to team managemetn and be like "you know..."

Why do Bob and Inzi have to do everything? They have a whole team to manage, who is Wasim managing? I just hate people who slate Bob and Inzi for everything.

Also cav, I understand that you love me...but do you sit by your keyboard and wait for my posts Theek hai!

well Younis khan said that" if England would have won the toss the must had also done the same".........
and i think Younis is right,the" Pitch factor" was not the main thing!We just batted cheaply on a hard bouncy track in the first inning.

I am not an anti inzi\Bob but whenever team does well these two get the most praise,so they shall also be ready for criticism too.....

FAir enough but they get blamed on little trivial matters such as this. Like I said, they got 15 men to manage...Wasim has no one to manage but himself.

And to be honest i dont think so bowling first would have matter much because our fast bowling is in dire straits these days!and our so called "Trump card"(Danish Kaneria) also proved a "chocker" so far!

There was not much assistance on dy two and he bowled with alot of heart. Even everyone's messiah Afridi did not do much.

lolzz
i cant criticize Afridi because its blasphemous to criticize him on pakpassion.
on a serious note i think Afridi is a utility player,he can change a game within minutes.Sometimes he comes up with goods ,sometime he doesn,t.We have to live with it.Thats the way he is...............Thats the way he plays.....

Yeah Iagree, he has the spark of brilliance but so does Kaneria. People just exepct him to clean up teams at THEIR HOME within minutes.

I know Kaneria has got spark but most of his wickets came in the later part of the innings ,104 wickets out of his 162 are in the 2nd innings i think .....

No link for this source ? This is a typical Waheed Khan type article.

Wasim can say a lot of things since he doesnt run the team - what if Niazi had been hit all over the park ? Sami bowled OK in this match - not in the same league as Harmison but niether is this Niazi chap, whom Wasim will want to play for Pak.

Some of the past greats have been treated horribly by Pak management for the last few years especially. It's very easy to say as to why did an ex-great not come forward of his own accord and give his piece of expert advice to help Pak, but then you need to remember the guys in charge pride themselves as having their own mind and only rarely would you see them yielding to others in case of a conflict of opinion. Ego problems run deep throughout the set-up.

Who knows, they may have been advised by Wasim after all. We cannot trust Waheed Khan's reports anyhow.

why would he call pakistan and say hey bowl first!

hi this is wasim how are you?
good
bowl first
what?
bowl first i know the wicket i played here
ok wasim thanks

stop calling fast-medium and medium-fast bowlers medium pacers!

I think hindsight is 20/20, however, Inzi still has the old Pakistani mentality, win the toss and bat
It came to haunt him in the ICC champions trophy, I was so excited when we won the toss, I was jumping up and down and then i heard that Pakistan was going to bat, oh how that day runs over and over in my head