Heartening and heartbreaking: Waqar Younis reveals biggest regret of his career

Pakistan’s legendary pacer Waqar Younis, while talking on the Cricket Badger Podcast, revealed the biggest regret of his career which was missing out on the 1992 World Cup due to injury.

The Men in Green completed a successful and historic turnaround in the tournament with the ‘Cornered Tigers’ mantra and won the tournament after beating England in the final.

Younis, who was injured a week before the tournament during a warm-up session, claimed that it was not the best time for him due to his injury.

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“That [tournament] was not the best time for me. I got injured. I broke my back, got a stress fracture in my back, just before the World Cup started. I was on tour, with the team, and in one of the warm-ups, I sort … something went wrong in my back, and couldn’t really walk after that World Cup for a long time,” Younis said.

The current Pakistan bowling coach also believes that he was at the top of his game before being struck down with the injury.

“That was probably the worst time because I was [at the] top of my game, I was bowling really well. And me being in the team, Pakistan were favourites to win that World Cup. Pakistan still won the World Cup, but missing out on that glory, was probably a not-so-happy moment for me,” he said.

The 48-year-old revealed that it was both heartening and heartbreaking to greet the team after their eventual World Cup triumph.

“I was very, very happy,” he said. “I still remember the day they came back to Pakistan, they landed at Lahore, I was there, I was there to receive them with the chief minister of the time. It was heartening as well as heart-breaking. It was a mixed feeling, but I was more happy. They recognised me that I missed out – they lifted me up and put me up on the truck, and gave me all the respect and love that I missed out on. I was hurting, in a way, but also it was very, very pleasing,” he concluded.

Waqar Younis is widely regarded as one of the best pacers in the world and formed arguably the greatest fast-bowling pair, alongside legendary pacer Wasim Akram, in the history of the sport. The right-arm pacer represented the Men in Green in 87 Tests and 262 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) while picking up 373 wickets and 416 wickets respectively in each format.