Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and Lt General (retd) Tauqir Zia has on Thursday (April 16) revealed that Shoaib Akhtar's career would have ended in 2000-01 if the late ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya had not helped the former speedster regarding his bowling action.
Having made Pakistan debut in 1997, Shoaib had earned a reputation of a fiery speedster only in three years of his international career. The main reason for Shoaib's success was the speed in his ball and his action behind his furious pace due to which the former speedster used to dodge the biggest batsman of his time, though, that action later became the biggest cause of trouble for him.
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In 1999 during the India tour, the International Cricket Council (ICC) had told the PCB that the bowling action of their speed merchant was under scrutiny, but the matter caught the fire in 2000-2001 with the apex body were against the Shoaib’s bowling action.
However, it was former BCCI chief Dalmiya, one of India's biggest cricket administrators, who served as the ICC's president from 1997 to 2000, took a stand for Pakistan and saved Akhtar's career despite the ICC members insisting that the former pacer’s bowling action was illegal.
Zia, who headed the PCB from 1999 to 2003, said: “Jagmohan, who had been president of the ICC and was an influential voice, supported us a lot in the Shoaib Akhtar bowling action case. He took a stand for us despite the ICC members insisting that Akhtar's bowling action was illegal.”
The former PCB chief further added, “But due to the stance taken by Dalmiya and myself the ICC eventually conceded that Akhtar had a medical flaw in his bowling arm since birth which gave him hyper elbow extension and he was allowed to play on.”
Zia also revealed that some players might have under-performed in the 2003 World Cup – where Pakistan failed to qualify for the super six stages, because of differences within the team at that time which forced him to ask then chief selector Wasim Bari to drop stalwarts like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Saeed Anwar from the team following the showpiece event.
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He further added, “After the World Cup I was very disappointed with the way the players had performed because it was the best possible side we could have picked for the World Cup. I was hearing about these groupings and differences within the team even before the tournament and I suspected some of them under-performed because of their conflicts.”
There were reports about captain Waqar not getting support from some players throughout the 2003 World Cup and Zia said: “I had wanted to make Wasim captain for the World Cup but many people in the board opposed this and even the ICC had its reservations because of the fixing inquiry reports.”
He signed off by saying, “I told Bari now is the time (after World Cup) to free Pakistan cricket of Wasim, Waqar, Saeed, and some others. We then made Rashid Latif the captain and asked him to build a new team. I thought Rashid did a good job and for a while, it appeared, we were rebuilding the team, but circumstances led to other things.”
(With PTI Inputs)
