'My whole life has just been cricket'
Former Pakistan fast bowler Waqar Younis on being handpicked by Imran Khan for a national camp, how he perfected the reverse-swinging yorker, and winning a Test alongside Wasim Akram with the bat
Nikita Bastian
25-Feb-2013
Former Pakistan fast bowler Waqar Younis on being handpicked by Imran Khan for a national camp, how he perfected the reverse-swinging yorker, and winning a Test alongside Wasim Akram with the bat. All that and more in an interview with Shoaib Naveed in the Dawn.
"I wasn’t ever taught to bowl line and length, and feel like coaching is sometimes bad for you as a budding fast bowler. Raw is always good. I remember I bowled extremely waywardly in my first few games, but Imran never told me to hold back, or asked me what I was doing. These days the captain will easily get frustrated and say 'What are you doing?…I didn’t pick you for this.' But Imran told me 'I picked you to bowl fast' and that’s what I did."
Nikita Bastian is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo