Akram: Zaheer best left-arm pacer

Sethu Maathavan January 17, 2009

"Without doubt Zaheer Khan is the best. He has improved his bowling. He can swing the ball both ways and also get it to reverse swing. He can also bowl close to the wicket, wide of the crease and round the wicket," said Wasim Akram.

"With India becoming the best team in the world, Pakistan should play against them. Sporting ties should never be cancelled," he said.

"India have won against Australia at home and away, and beaten England and South Africa. I will admit that South Africa are the best only if they do well in India during their tour," he said.

"If Pakistan does not get to play international cricket, they may lose more players to the Indian Cricket League (ICL). If cricketers do not get enough opportunity to play the game they will leave.”

"So Pakistan should play international cricket either at home or abroad at any cost. Pakistan will find their tour to Australia in October really tough as they have not played Test cricket for close to one year," he said.

About captain Shoaib Malik’s extension, Akram said, "He has improved a lot. Cricket captaincy is something you learn over the years. You have to learn to handle the media, the senior players and how to act off the field. He has to learn to take advantage of senior players because without their support you cannot go a long way.”