Playing his first Test match in Australia in 1990, former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram was neither aware of the prevalent culture at Melbourne Cricket Ground’s Bay 13 Stand nor well-versed with the Australian accent. As a result, Akram conveniently mistook some hostile fans’ sledging as words of appreciation for his performance.
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For the unversed, Bay 13, which is a part of the Shane Warne Stand, is a section of seating at the iconic venue. Akin to Headingley’s Western Terrace in England, the spectators of Bay 13 are also famous for their rowdy behaviour and are considered as one of the most toughest fans to deal with. They don’t even shy away from passing abusive chants towards the visiting players.
In spite of the spectators calling him a wank*r, a vulgar slang, Akram, comparatively younger to the highest level at the time, was bound to believe that he was being praised in a match in which he grabbed 11 wickets. As per his admission on Triple M Podcast during the recently concluded second Australia-Pakistan Test match, he only realized the original meaning of the word after then-captain Imran Khan explained it to him in Urdu.
“At Bay 13, I was fifer or something, they were calling me that [Wank*r]. ‘Wasim is a Banker’ [he censored the exact word]. I thought they were praising me. Because at that time I couldn’t get hold of the Aussie accent. It was early days in Australia and I was very happy, you know, happy and waving them and everything,” Akram recalled while calling the match for Triple M Podcast.
Although Australia won that match by 92 runs, Akram was on fire with the ball in hand. In what was his third 10-wicket match haul in the format, his victims included A-list names such as Steve Waugh, Allan Border and Geoff Marsh.
Wasim Akram Never Played Another Melbourne Test
During the course of a nearly two-decade long career, Wasim Akram managed to play just a solitary Melbourne Test. He did travel to Australia as Pakistan’s captain to play a couple of Test series in 1995 and 1999, but neither of the six Tests was scheduled in the city.
Akram, who grabbed as many as 414 wickets in an illustrious Test career, possessed an excellent record down under. In a total of nine Tests (two each in Hobart, Brisbane and Sydney, and one each in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide) in Australia, Akram’s 36 wickets had come at an average and strike rate of 24.06 and 58.08 respectively with the help of three five-wicket hauls.
Talking about Akram’s performance outside Asia, Australia was his second-favourite country after New Zealand in terms of average. A whole different beast in New Zealand, where he scalped 50 wickets across seven Tests at a fantastic average of 17.18, it wouldn’t be wrong to conclude that Akram had a love affair with Oceania.
