Waqar ‘regrets’ issues he had with Wasim Akram

Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis has expressed regret at the strained relationship he shared with Wasim Akram during their playing days. Speaking on the fifth episode of ESPNcricinfo Talking Cricket to be aired on Friday night India time on Sony ESPN, Waqar said the “issues” between them didn’t help the team’s cause.

“I am really good friends with Wasim bhai, he has always been an elder brother,” Waqar said. “He has always supported and helped me on the field, off the field. Yeah, we had issues. He didn’t only have issues with me but we had issues in the team those days, which yes, if you ask me the truth, yes I do regret at times because you know it did not really help Pakistan cricket.

“But then again if you look at it, we had issues off the field but when we walked on to the field it was different ball game altogether. We wanted to compete [with] each other, we wanted to take more wickets than the other one and I think in a way, it did help. But yeah, if you ask me that particular episode, yes, we all regret it because it shouldn’t have happened. It was ugly those days but those days we were younger and we didn’t know much, now [we are] probably wiser and we want to improve things. Yeah, you can say that it was a regret.”

Waqar felt the standard of first-class level in Pakistan had diminished with too many teams being involved, and advocated “serious competition” to …

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