Lancashire: Was-stounding season comes to a close (21 Sep 1998)

21 September 1998

Was-stounding season comes to a close

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph

Wasim Akram flies home to Lahore later this week in a desperate bid to clear his name of the match-fixing allegations which threaten his future in cricket.

In any future trial, he could rely on dozens of character witnesses from the Lancashire dressing room, while thousands more Lancastrian cricket followers will be praying that he comes through this biggest test of his career.

Wasim has had his moments with Lancashire - his angry clash with Chris Adams in the Benson and Hedges Cup Final of 1993, his on-field exchange with umpire Nigel Plews two years earlier, and most frustrating the injuries which have kept him out of so many games, and ruined his whole 1997 season.

But he must still go down as the most successful, and popular, overseas player the county has had since Clive Lloyd. That popularity was confirmed in quite moving scenes at Old Trafford yesterday, as Lancashire's victory over Hampshire was totally upstaged. The game should have finished on Saturday in front of a much bigger crowd, but the low sun stopped play 10 minutes into the extra half hour with Hampshire eight wickets down.

Their remaining batsmen had some fun yesterday morning, Shaun Udal, Nixon McLean and Rajesh Maru plundering 69 runs as Wasim resisted the temptation to bowl himself and relied instead on his spinners.

For Maru, Hampshire's chunky 35-year-old Kenyan born spinner, it was the end of a county career which started way back in 1980 with Middlesex, and he went out in style with a rare six off Gary Yates which brought generous applause from Lancashire supporters and players.

Yates and Gary Keedy each took a wicket to wrap up the win, with both Wasim and Peter Martin left as Lancashire's joint leading wicket taker with 48. For stats fans, that left Wasim's tally in 89 Championship matches at 370, averaging less than 22, in addition to 3,150 runs - with his huge contribution to Lancashire's one-day successes as an added bonus. But there was a feeling of anti-climax not just because of Saturday's sun, but mainly because Lancashire's Championship hopes had been extinguished, Leicestershire wrapping up the title when they picked up a seventh Surrey wicket at ten to twelve on Saturday morning.

With Leicester completing a crushing innings victory over Surrey, Lancashire's failure to take a single batting point in the first innings against Hampshire did not matter. They ended up 15 points behind Leicester, and had to reflect instead on the washed out match between the counties at Old Trafford in July, as well as another damp squib against Middlesex in April, plus the opening defeat by Sussex and draws against Kent and Glamorgan, as the matches when the title slipped away.

Still, it has been an excellent year for Wasim, coach Dav Whatmore and the rest of the players. But it was fitting that the year should end with Lancashire confirming John Crawley as their new captain at the age of 27.

Crawley failed to threaten Jason Gallian's ground record 312 on Saturday, adding only 28 to his overnight 211. But that left him with a remarkable tally of 1,851 first class runs, more than 600 more than Ben Smith, the next best English-qualified batsman, and also top of the first class averages. He was an automatic choice as the members' player of the year.

Source :: Lancashire Evening Telegraph (https://www.reednews.co.uk/let/)