I have often battled with myself to figure out exactly how I want to remember Wasim Akram.
He is the best left-arm pacer to have played the game but there were the dark days of match fixing too.
Last week marked the anniversary of when he reached 400 ODI wickets. And for the occasion, I am going to set the heartbreak aside and think of the joy that Wasim Akram brought into our lives.
1992
It pitched short of length, on or around the off stump. What was Allan Lamb supposed to do? Come forward? It wasn’t that full. Stay back? It wasn’t that short either. He was done.
The next delivery pitched way outside the off stump. Chris Lewis brought his front leg forward but he was too late; the ball never really stopped coming back in. Two in two. Game, set and match.
If there was ever any doubt in anyone’s mind about Wasim Akram’s class, these two deliveries dispelled them forever.
He is one of the finest cricketers ever and perhaps fate had wanted for him to make this announcement at the biggest stage of all.
He scored 33 from 18 balls and Pakistan closed their innings at 249. With England looking comfortable at 141 for 4, Imran Khan threw the ball to Wasim Akram. In front of a record crowd of 87,000 fans, first with the bat and then this trickery with the ball. Superhuman stuff?
