The two Ws of Pakistan- Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis terrorized the cricket world in the 90s thanks to their ability to reverse swing the old ball at a very high bowling speed. The duo was groomed by their legendary captain Imran Khan and went to achieve great heights.

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.

WATCH- Wasim Akram names the toughest ever batsman he has bowled to in his career

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.

Providing his view, Waqar said, “I always say that my success has come because Wasim was bowling from the other end. It gave me a lot of energy, boosted my confidence and what we used to do is if I finished my over, I never used to go to fine leg or third man, I would go and stand at mid-off and vice-versa he used to do the same, and we used to tell each other what to do next ball and the ball after and the ball after [that]. I really praise and thank God for having him on the other end because the performance came together and really made Pakistan do well.”

“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: