Wasim Akram among his peers

[Burgey]

Probably my favourite ever bowler to watch. Just loved the bloke

Mo Matthews told me he rated Akram second only to Marshall of the blokes he played test cricket against when I asked him who was the best he faced. IIRC his exact words were "Marshall was the best I played with or against. I never thought I was good enough to play against him. And Wasim Akram owned me, I never had a clue".

 

[Teja.]

Not sure that's right. I think the majority of subcontinental (and general) cricket fans see Wasim as the greater bowler and Imran as the greater cricketer.

Whether that' right or wrong is another point, but I don't think fans underrate Wasim vs. Imran on bowling alone.

I'd say in Pakistan, Imran is seen as the better bowler. In India, Wasim is seen as better but in both countries for people who were old enough to watch their entire careers, Imran almost always wins out.

Imran had an extended peak that fast bowlers since Barnes have never hit and have not hit after. Between 1981 and 1986, He took 154 wickets @ 14.8, despite spending a good part of the period injured and he was amazing against the best side in the world of his time, West Indies both home and away. At his peak, for half a decade, he was a considerably better than anybody else in the world when Marshall, Hadlee, Holding, Garner and Lillee were his competition. It's possible that people who actively followed Pakistan cricket during the Imran period consider Wasim better but I've not seen any older Pakistan fans do that.

 

[honestbharani]

Imran is probably the Sachin to Wasim's Lara among the bowlers..

 

[Dan]

On the McGrath/Wasim comparison, I think McGrath is the cake to Wasim's icing.

Wasim with all the tricks and 150km/h inswinging yorkers from left-arm over, being able to do literally everything with the ball.
McGrath being about as close to the perfect bowler as one can ever get.

McGrath still better.

 

[bagapath]

purely as bowlers

mcgrath>imran>wasim

with hardly a milli micron separating them




as cricketers overall

imran>wasim>mcgrath




still... while selecting a dream XI...

imran=mcgrath=wasim

but... in that order, if you know what i mean.

 

[Pratters]

I wonder if we would have looked at Wasim differently if he took 40 or so more wickets which fielders dropped in his career or if he had been part of a stronger team like West Indies or Australia. Pakistan was fine in parts but still not the world beaters through Akram's career. If Wasim was an Australian, he could have been considered the greatest bowler ever. I wonder who would have taken more wickets if McGrath and Akram played alongside each other. Would have been a deadly combination, that's for sure.

 

[cnerd123]

Double edged sword. If Wasim was Australian he might never have been selected - remember Imran just plucked him out of the nets one day and mentored him. Who's the say he would have been recognised and guided in that way if he was Australian? He might have never even learnt reverse swing to begin with.

 

[Pratters]

He probably would have got less wickets too as an Aussie as McGrath would have plucked so many of them, say. Yeah, one can never call on these hypothetical things. It is really nitpicking though. Some one can easily put Wasim ahead of McGrath and Imran. All three have achieved enough in their careers as bowlers.

 

[cnerd123]

The whole "If so-and-so was from X country" hypothetical is kinda BS unless you start from their absolute origins anyways.

A guy like McGrath was a product of Australia. He couldn't have become the bowler he was anywhere else. The cricketing culture, the pitches, the conditions he grew up in and the guidance he got all could not be replicated anywhere else.

You could pose a hypothetical "If McGrath married an Indian woman at 20 years old, got an Indian passport, moved there, and began a career for India" and talk about what he may or may not achieved then I guess.

 

[Pratters]

You could pose a hypothetical "If McGrath married an Indian woman at 20 years old, got an Indian passport, moved there, and began a career for India" and talk about what he may or may not achieved then I guess.

Probably would have ended up like Avishkar Salvi.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Watching Wasim was a treat, and he was a phenomenal bowler but you obviously get the feeling he should've achieved more. I mean, 400 wickets at 23 is ridiculously good, but a bowler that good should've ended up with 500+. Felt sometimes that Wasim went into lean patches when he suffered from maybe some lack of motivation or other issues troubling the team (eg: the alleged internal strife between him and Waqar in 1999 in Aus) especially in the period after his diabetes diagnosis. But when he was fired up and exra motivated he could overcome that and deliver big time. His tours in 1999-2000 in India and West Indies is what sticks out to me the most. Was awesome in both those series.

 

[Pratters]

The thing with Wasim when on song was that he would pick out wickets on the deadest of tracks as he wouldn't rely on the tracks at all. That 99 series v India saw such great bowling. In countless ODIs, even if a team needed 4.5 runs an over and had a few wickets with not many overs remaining, there were times when Wasim and Pakistan upped the pressure and won games they had no business winning. You make a good point that Wasim should have had a few more wickets. I reckon even if he had 50 more, it would have done him justice sort of. And even that's a compliment because the record as it stands is superb.

 

[weldone]

Somehow I always feel that Wasim in test cricket overall didn't quite achieve what he was capable of. I know this is generally not something that's said about ATGs like Wasim, but I still feel so.

...and same about Waqar (but that is mainly due to injuries)

 

[Furball]

I know Furball you asked for my opinion on this (not sure why you are banned now) but in terms of pure bowling ability I don't think I would be able to rank anybody above Wasim. By that I mean what Ambrose means that he could do things with the ball that no other bowler could. Imran is considered the godfather of Asian fast bowling because he really was the first real fast bowler to emerge from Asia. Had genuine pace and aggression. I don't think Imran had the kind of ability with the new ball that Wasim had but he was mentally tougher. A lot of the tricks of the trade that Wasim gained were passed down from Imran. Does that answer your question?

Kinda.

It's just not really a debate I think we've really had on CW. They weren't contemporaries for most of their careers but it's an interesting question nontheless. And I think the fact you've picked Wasim is really interesting.

 

[ImpatientLime]

of the people his career overlapped with, he's inferior to marshall, ambrose and mcgrath.

a much of a muchness with donald. better than waqar, walsh and pollock.

 

[adub]

Great great bowler, but I'd still take Imran over him even if Imran had batted like Aaqib Javed.

 

[smash84]

Great great bowler, but I'd still take Imran over him even if Imran had batted like Aaqib Javed.

This is quite debatable tbh

 

[kiwiviktor81]

Wasim's the classic example of not being able to rate a player by spreadsheet. Whatever his averages, he probably had the most complete arsenal of deadly deliveries ever.

 

[weldone]

Wasim's the classic example of not being able to rate a player by spreadsheet. Whatever his averages, he probably had the most complete arsenal of deadly deliveries ever.

I have a personal theory about why spreadsheets might not rate him correctly - but I won't mention it here because I know I won't be popular for that (plus I don't have anything concrete to back that theory really ).

 

[smash84]

do you think spreadsheets overrate him or underrate him?