Former Pakistani cricketer Saleem Malik has outright rejected claims that Wasim Akram has made in his autobiography- ‘Sultan: A Memoir”, that the senior cricketer had treated the left-arm pacer like a servant when Akram had just started playing for Pakistan in 1984-85.
In his memoir, Akram has revealed that Malik would take unjust advantage of his seniority, often treating him poorly, more so on overseas tours.
An excerpt from Akram's book read: “He would take advantage of my junior status. He was negative, selfish and treated me like a servant. He demanded I massage him; he ordered me to clean his clothes and boots. I was angry when some of the younger team members in Ramiz Raja, Tahir Naqqash, Mohsin Khan, and Shoaib Mohammad invited me to nightclubs.”
Akram played under Malik's captaincy as well, when Malik captained Pakistan from 1992-1995, winning seven out of 12 Tests and 21 of 34 ODIs.
Now in an interview to 24 News, Malik refuted Akram’s claims and said: “I want to ask him for his view on his comments and in what sense did he write those. We used to go on tour for Pakistan tours, there used to be laundry machines there. We didn’t have to use our hands.
Till I don’t talk to him or I don’t check his book. I don’t want to comment on it. We are colleagues and spent good time together. So I don’t want to create any controversy."
“If I was selfish, then how did he play his first match under me? So why would I let him bowl. The way he is talking about clothes and massage, he is insulting himself. Till I don’t talk to him, I won’t know in what sense he wrote it,” Malik added.
Saleem Malik played under Akram's captaincy from 1996-1999 and in total played 103 Tests and 293 ODIs for Pakistan.
(PTI inputs)
