Wasim Akram angrily comes up with the reason behind his absence from Pakistan playing XI versus India during 1996 World Cup quarter-final.
Advertisement
Passionate Cricket fans in countries like India and Pakistan can really be unforgiving, when their two teams face each other especially during a World Cup contest, and the result isn’t a victory.
From Misbah-ul-Haq during the 2007 T20 World Cup, or a Ravichandran Ashwin during the 2014 Asia Cup, players have faced the ire of the fans from across the border, with their emotions not being able to differentiate between a sport and a war.
The legendary Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram too, back in 1996 during the ODI World Cup in India, had to face something similar, when the Pakistan fans came out with baseless rumours surrounding his unavailability during the high-octane quarter-final clash against India at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bangalore.
The team management had not revealed until the eleventh hour that Akram had been ruled out of the second quarter-final clash against India due to a chest strain injury.
Wasim Akram angrily explains reason for missing quarter-final clash versus India during 1996 World Cup
During an interaction with ‘A Sports‘ alongside other Pakistani cricketers in Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, and Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram angrily flustered while explaining the people who had come up with different versions of the story around his absence from the aforementioned match.
The 56-year-old exclaimed that he had picked up a chest strain injury while sweeping to a ball bowled by New Zealand’s Dion Nash three days before the quarter-final match against India.
The reason he had not publicly reveal the nature of his injury was because he did not wish the Indian press to pick the story up and hand India the advantage to strategize around this new chink in his team’s armor.
“I got injured three days ago against New Zealand. I scored 34 runs. I went down to sweep Dion Nash with the fine leg up, and I suffered an intercostal muscle pull. It took six weeks to completely heal. Waqar is sitting here, the reason we did not reveal it in the press is so that India does not get the confidence going into the match that their main player, the captain is injured,” exclaimed Akram.
He also stated that the team physio Dan Kiesel even injected him with six painkillers in the morning of the clash, but to no avail.
Ata-ur-Rehman was roped in as Wasim’s replacement in the playing XI that day, and despite him bowling decently well in the contest, Pakistan suffered a 39-run defeat, after failing to chase down the total of 287 posted by India.
