Triumphant moment for Wasim Akram

I watched the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test match as a part of professional duty and the West Indies-England test match for pleasure. The results of both matches were satisfactory. But what was "professional duty" turned to be a triumphant moment, by way of reflected glory, because it became Wasim Akram's Test match. It's been a long haul for him, to take over 400 wickets in both versions of the game, at the same time fending off allegations of impropriety which have taken the form of an orchestrated campaign, make it a stupendous achievement. And he's not finished yet. He is deserving of a ticker-tape parade but I think that Wasim will settle for just being left alone to play cricket.

Learning from his mentor Imran Khan, Wasim Akram is starting to concentrate on his batting. Imran, toward the end of his career could walk into the Pakistan team as a batsman. Whether Wasim Akram will be able to do that remains to be seen but Pakistan was able to win the Colombo test match because Wasim was sent higher in the batting order. It was a vote of confidence in his batting ability.

The Sri Lankans have a balanced bowling attack in the limited overs game but if they are going to prepare a spinning track, then Muralitharan is not enough and I thought they might have been served better if they had played Upal Chandana and left out one of the seamers.

Pakistan in turn left out Imran Nazir and I am mystified why this young cricketer is getting such shabby treatment. The Pakistan thinktank may have perfectly sound reasons but we would like to be told what these are. Of course, nothing succeeds like success and the think-tank can point to the fact that Pakistan won the Test match. But that still does not justify their messing about with one of the most promising young cricketers Pakistan has produced in recent years. I fear that he may suffer the same fate as Mohammad Wasim who started his career as a middle-order batsman and made a century on test debut, he then went into the wilderness and has re-emerged as an opening batsman.

Perhaps our own think-tank has been inspired by the English think-tank who have turned Mark Ramprakash into an opening batsman and thus effectively have found themselves a sacrificial lamb. The danger of having too many experts is that it is at the cost of common sense. The strategy of the limited overs game where the batting order is shuffled about is not suited to test cricket.

While we are congratulating Wasim Akram, we must not forget Waqar Yunus who has reached the 300 wicket milestone. His career too has not been smooth and now when he plays, he has to prove himself. He is still a superb bowler though he may have lost something in pace.

Fast bowlers hunt in pairs and at their prime, Wasim and Waqar were a deadly combination, equal if not better than Larwood and Voce, Lindwall and Miller, Truman and Statham (now sadly deceased) Lillie and Thomson and the most celebrated of them all Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, still going strong as we saw at Edgbaston when the West Indies wiped the deck with an innings victory.

It is extraordinary how a decision to change a captain can transform a team. That is what has happened to the West Indies. Jimmy Adams is not the sort of captain that strikes awe in the team. He leads by example but most of all what comes through is that he leads by affection. When Chanderpaul reached his half century, Jimmy Adams embraced him as if he was hugging a long-lost brother. It was a warm and wonderful way of a captain telling one of his players: "thank you."

There is no doubt that he is getting one hundred per cent out of his players. This is not a batch of gifted individuals. This is a team in every sense of the word. Ambrose bowled his heart out without luck or success. But he did not resent the fact that Walsh and others were reaping the rewards of his having softened-up the England batsmen. He was positively delighted.

But Walsh is truly the `the ol' man river' who just keeps rolling along. He is not even showing his age. On the first morning of the test match, he bowled unchanged right through the first session. But more than just getting wickets, the West Indies bowlers have started to make runs and occupy the crease. They did it against Pakistan and they did it at Edgbaston.

I think the time may have come when England must seriously look at appointing a foreign coach, someone who will pull them out of the rut in which they have been for so many years. Someone who will inculcate some dash, some daring in their cricket.

Nothing better epitomises the story plight of English cricket than the team of cricket commentators of Bob Willis, Paul Allott, Ian Botham and David Lloyd, who drone on, wearing their patriotism on their sleeves, and complaining and carping like nagging housewives. They sound like coroners discussing an autopsy.

How long ago it seems since someone like Denis Compton strode on to the wicket? Or someone like Fred Truman marked out his bowling run-up? Too long for the good of English cricket.