thank you very much for all the input…
Thank you very much guys for all the input.
I guess it is obvious from the above discussion that we are split on the issue of who was better in 2 Ws. That is why i provided statistics at the beginning of this thread because it is always easier to make a decision based on statistics. But i do understand that some time a player’s caliber is not truly reflected by statistics only. zaheer abbas is an excellent example. his test statistics are just OK but they do not reflect his true ability as well as talent. Having said that, the importance of “quantative data” can not be ignored either.
Based on statistics, waqar younis is far ahead of wasim akram… 952 first class wickets as compared to wasim 1042 wickets by bowling almost 2ooo overs less…again these are the statistics and we can not take the credit away from waqar for proudcing these statistics.
Talent wise…both were extremely talented but I consider waqar more intelligent than wasim. Imran on numerous occasions admitted that waqar was better and fast learner and i also gave an example of reverse swing. wasim was never able to use it between 1984 to 1990 even though he was under direct supervision of imarn for all these years but when waqar emerged in 90s he learnt it right away and whole world became aware of this magic. Later on he became wasim closest friend (1989 to 1992) and wasim also became good with reverse swing.
But then wut was wasim strength…i guess his unbelievable twisting action which allowed him to swing the ball in both directions without requiring a lot of speed. Instead of bringing his “delivering hand” from his back or away from his body ( like most of the pace bowlers do including waqar and Thompson, Lillie), he was naturally inclined to deliver the bowl with a perfect angle between his both arms (very close to the body) and wicket…he was extremely dangerous when he was able to take a high jump in his earlier days but even in his later days, he was able to deliver both speed and swing by taking few steps because of his twisting action. remember Damien martin wicket on first ball in 2003 world cup against Australia… in essence, there have been more reliable bowlers, faster bowlers, more accurate bowlers, but there cannot have been any with as wide a range of deliveries as wasim akram.
Waqar may have one of the best fast bowling action but his action was his biggest enemy too…People do argue that today’s Waqar is not the same in terms of speed and aggressiveness as the one who completed his first 50 test wickets in only 10 matches and 150 in 28 test, whose strength would lie on the deadly combination of explosive pace and reverse swing with which he would shatter stumps or bruise toes of even world class batsmen. At 29 years of age, the youth and exuberance of a fast bowler is definitely over the hill. But Waqar has gone a lot more mature as a bowler. He has deliberately cut down upon his pace as a result of which his line and length is far more precise than what it used to be and he goes for a far lesser amount of runs. The same Waqar who would solely rely upon his pace to overcome the opposition, now cleverly plays with the weaknesses of the batsmen. He has also gained more control over his out-swingers which adds to the immense ambiguities facing the batsmen.
In essence, wasim akram has an edge over waqar in terms of longevity of the career but only because of his natural action.
Now who produced more wins for pakistan… tell u wut…when u talk abt wasim and waqar they were the true partner in the crime…i would never forget the 1992 series when wasim became the captin for the first time and took the team to south africa…guess wut…we beat SA three times in a row and every time waqar and wasim did the magic (real magic) in last 10 overs when the ball become little old…those golden days…these two did this magic so many times, so many times, in sharja, in England, in NZ, in Australia that our whole generation became used to these miracles…trust me these two spoiled us…now unintentionally, we expect the same magic from minnows like shoaib and sami…but we forget that they r not WS…however, because of waqar ability of taking bulk of wickets in few overs provides him an edge over wasim in this matter… remember waqar took 4 or more than 4 wickets 27 times as compared to wasim 23 times and not to mention that akram played almost 85 one day matches more than waqa.
some people argued that why r we wasting our time by discussing old WS… well it is not wastage of time because it was a serious discussion… and trust me… in coming 50 yrs, fast bowling in Pakistan will always be judged either against waqar or wasim…
In the end, on a bitter note, yes, wasim had a bad influence on Pakistani cricket…yes wasim is responsible for playin with careers of many many players… yes wasim is extremly negative minded if he gets annoyed of some one…yes wasim did not produce one single player for Pakistan and yes wasim destroyed waqar career between 1996 to 1999 when he was still very fast and was able to break kapil dev record… but u know wut… there was only one akram in this whole world… with that famous passionate celebration after getting a wicket…
and I can not have a better ending for this thread but to post this article about WS published in a prominent Indian newspaper HINDU. We all love WS but their real greatness is depicted by the fact that some1 admired them across the border too….