While the Pakistan cricket team was known for its competitive spirit during the 90s and early 2000s, there have also been many allegations leveled against them like in-fights, disharmony, lack of unity, groupism, etc. At the same time, there were also several reports mentioning that the dynamic pace duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis who shared a great camaraderie on the field never saw each other eye-to-eye off it.
Lately, Wasim Akram himself has made starling revelation about some of his teammates’ true characters in his autobiography 'Sultan: A Memoir'. In his book, he has labelled former wicketkeeper-batter Rashid Latif as a ‘’Lobbyist’’ and ex-opening batter Aamir Sohail a ‘’Zombie’’.
The lobbyists were at work: Wasim Akram
"The lobbyists were at work. In July 2000, Rashid Latif gave an interview to The Sunday Telegraph in which he claimed to have been offered £15,000 to ensure Pakistan were bowled out for under 300 in the 1996 Lord's Test. And who knows? Maybe he had. But had he told me, his captain, at the time? No. Had he reported it to his coach or manager? No. Had he told Qayyum? No. Amazingly, these stories only ever came out when he wanted attention," read an excerpt from Akram's autobiography, according to a report from Cricket Pakistan.
"I was publicly reinstated as captain for the DMC Trophy in Toronto. The clamour for change was satisfied by a new coach,Wasim Raja, and new selectors: Wasim's brother Ramiz,Naushad Ali, and Abdur Raquib. They recalled, after his tireless lobbying, the zombie figure of Aamir Sohail," another excerpt of the read.
In the very same autobiography, Wasim has also accused former middle-order batter Saleem Malik of ill-treating him during the early part of his career. The pace legend alleged that Malik took undue advantage of his seniority and made Wasim wash his clothes and boots during Pakistan’s matches along with providing body massages.
Meanwhile, Wasim Akram did not even spare his 1992 World Cup-winning teammate and the current Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ramiz Raja and mentioned that the latter used to enjoy all the luxuries during his playing days only because of his father’s influence.
Akram wrote that only reason why Raja was always allowed to field at slips was because his father was a police commissioner. At the same time, the former skipper also mentioned that Ramiz had dropped more catches than he caught.
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