Wasim Akram

Wasim Akram is regarded as the greatest left-arm fast bowler in the history of the game and, alongside Sarfraz Nawaz and Imran Khan, one of the pioneers who turned reverse swing into a weapon. Across 104 Tests and a then-world-record 502 ODI wickets between 1984 and 2003, the "Sultan of Swing" remains Pakistan's leading Test wicket-taker, with 414.

From Lahore to the Test arena

Akram, born in Lahore on 3 June 1966, was an unknown club cricketer who had not even made his college team when he turned up for open trials at Gaddafi Stadium in December 1984. On the third day he finally got a bowl, and his pace impressed senior batsman Javed Miandad enough to insist on his selection for the tour of New Zealand — Akram made his Test debut there in January 1985, aged 18, with almost no first-class experience, and took ten wickets in only his second Test. A serious groin injury and two surgeries slowed him in the late 1980s; he returned in the 1990s as a bowler who traded some raw pace for swing and control. Alongside his international career he was a fixture of English county cricket, opening the bowling for Lancashire from 1988 to 1998 and, in his final season there as captain, leading the county to the NatWest Trophy and Sunday League titles. He went on to become Pakistan's all-time leading Test wicket-taker, a record he still holds.

Reverse swing, and two balls that won a World Cup

Akram's signature skill was reverse swing — making an old ball dart back into right-handers late in its flight, the opposite of a new ball's conventional movement. It was never more devastating than in the 1992 World Cup final at the MCG: after making 33 off 19 balls to help Pakistan to 249 for 6, he removed Ian Botham cheaply, then returned with the old ball reversing sharply to bowl Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis with successive deliveries in the same over, winning the Man of the Match award as Pakistan won its only World Cup title. He became the first bowler in history to reach 500 ODI wickets, doing so during the 2003 World Cup, and in Wisden's 2002 assessment of the greatest players of all time he was rated the finest one-day bowler ever, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis and Glenn McGrath.

Captaincy, and a cloud of suspicion

Akram captained Pakistan on and off through the 1990s, including the run to the 1999 World Cup final, which Pakistan lost heavily to Australia. That defeat, and the wider match-fixing scandals that engulfed Pakistan cricket in the late 1990s, led to a formal inquiry by Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum. His 2000 report did not find Akram guilty of match-fixing, but concluded he was "not above suspicion" and had been given the benefit of the doubt after a key witness changed his testimony. Akram always denied wrongdoing and played on until 2003.

The bowling figures

Format	Matches	Wickets	Average	Best
Tests	104	414	23.62	7/119
ODIs	356	502	23.52	5/15

A batting record hiding inside a bowling career

Akram was no mere tailender. Promoted as a nightwatchman against Zimbabwe in 1996, he made an unbeaten 257 — still the highest score by a number-eight batsman in Test history — and hit 12 sixes in the innings, which remains the record for the most sixes by any player in a single Test innings. He also shares the record for the most hat-tricks taken in international cricket, four, two in Tests and two in ODIs, with Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga.

Life after playing

Akram retired in 2003 and moved into broadcasting, becoming a fixture of television commentary for ESPN Star Sports and other networks, and later worked as bowling coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. In October 2013, to mark Wisden's 150th anniversary, he was the only Pakistani cricketer named in an all-time Test World XI. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009, and published his autobiography, Sultan: A Memoir, with the writer Gideon Haigh, in 2022.

For his full career record, see his player profile; for the captain who led Pakistan to the 1992 World Cup title, see Imran Khan.