Akram calls out England's hypocrisy on reverse swing

Pakistan’s legendary fast-bowler Wasim Akram, in an interview with Fox Sports, called out England’s hypocrisy on reverse swing. The legendary duo of former pacer Waqar Younis and Akram had ripped through England’s batsmen on Pakistan’s 1992 tour, but were frequently alleged by British media to have tampered with the ball.

Akram, who was frequently blamed (without proof) for ball tempering, hit back at the critics by stating that it was ball tempering when they didn’t understand it and now it is reverse swing since they can bowl it.

“By the time it was 1995/96, the world knew what reverse swing was like you guys said he was ball-tampering and then you learned the art, it became reverse swing,” said Akram.

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The legendary former pacer claimed that New Zealand’s former batsman Martin Crowe was one of the toughest batsmen he faced in his career.

“The reason was he got runs against me and Waqar (Younis) in 1993 in Pakistan. In three Test matches, I think Waqar got 30 wickets and I played two Test matches and I got 16 wickets. It was reverse swinging after about 10 overs and we were quick, we were [at the] peak of our careers, 23 or 24 both of us were, and he got two hundreds,” he said.

Akram praised Crowe’s impeccable technique which helped him negate the effects of reverse swing.

“I think his (Crowe) technique was as such that he was always on the front foot and he always played the in-swing. When it’s reverse swinging, you always play in-swing and the out-swing will automatically go away. As a bowler, me and Waqar used to get frustrated because he was always on the front foot. And then we used to bowl short, and that’s what he wanted us to do,” he concluded.