Akram bats for beleaguered Shoaib

Wasim Akram, the former Pakisani fast bowling great, has slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board for dropping Shoaib Akhtar from the squad that will tour West Indies. "Shoaib is a match winner and a quality fast bowler. He should be in the team," Akram told The News. "If he has any disciplinary, commitment or attitude problems, it is the job of the board and team management to sort it out. But just on this basis you cannot keep on ignoring him."

Akram also spoke of the need to separate Shoaib's activities off the field from what he did on it. "He played under my captaincy a lot and it is true he has a bit of an excessive lifestyle. But on the field frankly speaking he tried hard and was quite successful. Because we knew how to use him."

"My contention is that he should have been picked for the West Indies tour and if Inzamam-ul-Haq and Bob Woolmer have any problems with his attitude and commitment they can easily enough just send him back home. That would be a lesson for him. But it is the team that loses out if use is not made of his skills.

It was the Pakistan board's contention that Shoaib was not 100% fit, and that he had put on weight in his period away from the team. Akram defended him on these counts as well. Look I have been through this phase and believe these people on the medical panels they don't have a clue of the chemistry or fitness requirements for a pace bowler. Someone like Shoaib Akhtar who is an out and out fast bowler needs to be handled differently fitness wise. It is a folly to judge his fitness on the criteria set for others," said Akram. "He has put on some weight but it is natural that when a fast bowler come backs from an injury he puts on weight. The more he keeps on playing competitive matches he gets better. I don't think Shoaib would have been able to play in some of the domestic matches if he had not been fit at all."

While praising the fast bowlers who did a good job in India in Shoaib's absence, Akram felt that the challenges of bowling in the Caribbean were different, and that Shoaib's pace would have made a difference. "The wickets in the West Indies are slow and you require to dig the ball in and pace always comes handy there. The bowlers they have picked for the tour are all honest hard working bowlers but they don't have the pace to trouble the batsmen on the West Indies pitches where the best way of taking wickets is to reverse swing the ball and dig it in."