New Zealand seek Akram's services

New Zealand have approached Wasim Akram to help them out with the art of reverse swing. John Bracewell, the coach, and captain Stephen Fleming both raised the prospect in the last two days after Shoaib Akhtar's devastating match-winning performance at Wellington.

Fleming admitted that all inputs received from Akram would be invaluable. He was speaking to the New Zealand Herald when he said, "Why not go to the best, and if we can get him, great. I won't be putting my hand up to have a bat during that time. Certainly if we can get the best players in the world at that skill, then it'd be great to learn."

New Zealand have produced some good exponents of reserve swing in the past like Danny Morrison, Geoff Allot and Shane Bond - who is injured for the current series. Fleming added, "That's not disrespecting Danny Morrison, but different countries have different styles and we've seen one of the best countries at adopting reverse swing and how damaging it can be."

Last month, Akram was linked with the role of the Indian bowling coach. This had caused a stir in Pakistan but Akram clarified that he had not been approached by the BCCI. However Akram hadn't ruled out helping bowlers from other countries.

Fleming spoke about the lack of practice against such hostile bowling. "We don't get exposed to 150kmh inswingers that often. It's very hard to get facilities to practice that. I don't think it was application or commitment that was missing, it came down to skill issue."