Wasim and Waqar are legends of the game picking 1705 wickets in total in international cricket between them.
Wasim Akram made his Test debut in 1985 and Waqar in 1989, along with Sachin Tendulkar and went on to have a legendary career. Wasim and Waqar both retired in 2003, with Akram becoming the first bowler to pick 500 ODI wickets and was the first with more than 400 wickets in both formats. Meanwhile, Waqar Younis picked 416 ODI and 373 Test wickets in his career and both captained the Pakistani team with distinction.
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However, there were always talks of discord between the two and jealousy that they possibly harbored thanks to their personal accolades. “We had our ups and downs, [but] we weren’t jealous of each other. We were competitive. The idea was if Waqar gets five wickets in the first innings, I wanted to get six wickets in the second innings. And in the end, the Pakistan team benefited. So, it was a healthy competition I reckon,” Wasim said in an interview with Fox Cricket.
“When he had four wickets and I was at the other end, I tried to bowl a little outside off-stump and then Waqar, vice-versa he did the same thing, that [he] would get the five-for. It was a healthy competition; we had our differences on and off the field. You play for 15 years, it’s bound [to happen]. You have your differences with you missus,” Wasim said.
“It was fun and we used to enjoy each other’s company off the field as well, we had some great fun, and like he just mentioned, he was at mid-off and he used to tell me in-swing, out-swing, yorker, if I want to bowl a yorker have mid-on and mid-off slightly straighter and fine leg little finer. All these [things], we used to remind each other to look at your field first what you are doing,” Akram concluded.
Here is the video of the conversation: