Slippery and wet

"Where's Basit?" © AFP Enlarge

We were on the West Indies tour, in 1993. We won the fourth one-day international in St Vincent. I made 60 in that match and got the Man-of-the-Match award. All of us were over the moon.

After the game some of the players went straight to the swimming pool. But not everyone was keen to get into the water, especially because It was late in the afternoon, so Wasim Akram and Javed Miandad started throwing players in. I beat a retreat and went straight to my room, which happened to be in front of the pool.

After a while I heard Javed bhai's voice: "Where is Basit?" I understood that it was my turn to take a dip. I quickly got my prayer mat out and stood up as if I was saying my prayers.

They came in and stood there, waiting for me to finish. When I saw that they were not about to leave soon, I prolonged my fake prayers. After waiting a while, Javed bhai understood what was going on and told Wasim to give me the treatment. I resisted but eventually ended up in the pool.

I didn't know how to swim then and would nearly have drowned if Waqar Younis had not turned up and pulled me out.