POTW : subshakerz

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Wonderful post which sums the Imran-Wasim debate for many!

Congratulations to [MENTION=2919]subshakerz[/MENTION]

Posted from some time but still applicable:

I posted this on another thread, but it pretty much proves conclusively that Imran is better than Wasim:

It's tough given that Wasim is my favorite bowler, but I believe Imran is his superior. I have to laugh at all those who say "Wasim is better by a mile," how can you say that if you look at their records. I believe Imran is better that Wasim for the following reasons:

- Imran and Wasim were both complete bowlers, but while Imran used every ounce of talent to perfect his bowling, Wasim definitely did underachieve, and I say this as a fan. A man of his talent, you felt he deserved around 100 more wickets than he ended up with. The reason is that towards the end of his career, he was so awkward a proposition that batsmen just focused on playing him out and attacking others. The latter several years of his career was not as fruitful as a result.

- During their respective peaks (Imran 80-88, Wasim 90-99), Imran was far more consistent than Wasim. Imran rarely if ever had a poor series whereas Wasim often left outside factors affect his bowling, such as in West Indies in 93.

- Statistically, its pretty clear that Imran is ahead of Wasim on pretty much every measure (average, strikerate, you name it). Against the best side they faced, Imran was much more successful against the West Indies than Wasim was against Australia. Against others, with the passable exception of New Zealand, Imran averaged <25 against everyone, whereas Wasim averaged 28 against India, 29 against SA, and 30 against England, all more than decent batting sides. If you remove Zimbabwe from Wasim's record (a minnow Imran never played) the difference is even more apparent. And this doesn't even take into account the latter years when Imran was merely bowling support.

- In terms of rankings, the ICC a few years ago declared Imran among the top ten test bowlers of all-time statistically, well ahead of Wasim. They also declared Imran's bowling peak the best of any bowler of the modern era. Wasim wasn't even in the top 50! (http://www.relianceiccrankings.com/alltime/test/bowling/)

- Imran was much more capable of running through a side and winning a match singlehandely than Wasim. In fact, it would be hard to point to a a single occasion where Wasim ran through top class opposition to win a match the way Imran did against England in 82 and 87, Australia in 77, India in 82/83, and WI in 88. Imran took 8 6-fers, 3 7-fers and 2 8-fers in 88 matches (quite a few he didnt even bowl in), while Wasim only has 5 6-fers and 1 7-fer in 104 matches, that too against New Zealand (7-119).

- Imran faced a much more uphill task than Wasim in getting to the top. Through sheer will and ambition he transformed himself from a medium pacer to a fast bowler at a time when his country and region had none. Wasim had mentoring and quality bowling support from the get go.

- In terms of actual influence, Imran was much more influential. Imran started an entire legacy of fast bowlers, was the first to perfect reverse swing, and mentored both Ws. Wasim cant compare to Imran's gigantic impact.

I know this will be a tough pill for us Wasim fans to swallow, but my impression is that Imran's captaincy and all-round skills dont put as much attention to how great a bowler he really was.

 

[DRsohail]

yess agreed and great post...

 

[WebGuru]

Congrats bro this post really deserved a POTW award that's why i nominated this post of yours... I am glad you won it!

 

[Savak]

Diabetes, Match Fixing allegations hurt Wasim at the end of his career

 

[Savak]

Wasim Akram was equivalent to IK as captain, definately much better man manager than Waqar, all the juniors and some mid level seniors rate him as the best captain they played under from 1995-97 and 1999-2000.

 

[Major]

Wasim Akram was equivalent to IK as captain, definately much better man manager than Waqar, all the juniors and some mid level seniors rate him as the best captain they played under from 1995-97 and 1999-2000.

Wait how was he a good captain and man manager when there was a big gap between senior and junior players?

Every youngster from his era complain how they were not treated properly by waseem and the other seniors.

Cricket is a team sport, and if you end up having such un united bunch then how do you expect good results?

 

[Savak]

Wait how was he a good captain and man manager when there was a big gap between senior and junior players?

Every youngster from his era complain how they were not treated properly by waseem and the other seniors.

Cricket is a team sport, and if you end up having such un united bunch then how do you expect good results?

The likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Saqlain Mushtaq, Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzaq, Mohd Yousaf have all mentioned in many different interviews that Wasim was the best captain they played under. These same players do not have complimentary words for Waqar as captain and coach.

We are talking about his captaincy here, how seniors treated juniors is a separate discussion.

 

[Pakpak]

The likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Saqlain Mushtaq, Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzaq, Mohd Yousaf have all mentioned in many different interviews that Wasim was the best captain they played under. These same players do not have complimentary words for Waqar as captain and coach.

We are talking about his captaincy here, how seniors treated juniors is a separate discussion.

Shoaib Akhtar has said if he played under Imran his entire career would have been completely different.

Wasim had 1999 WC in his grasp and he bottled it.

 

[Savak]

Shoaib Akhtar has said if he played under Imran his entire career would have been completely different.

Wasim had 1999 WC in his grasp and he bottled it.

Difficult to say, that Australian team was peaking at the right time and were on a solid winning streak.

 

[Major]

The likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Saqlain Mushtaq, Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzaq, Mohd Yousaf have all mentioned in many different interviews that Wasim was the best captain they played under. These same players do not have complimentary words for Waqar as captain and coach.

We are talking about his captaincy here, how seniors treated juniors is a separate discussion.

Shoaib in his book complained about the way waseem and the senior brigade treated players

 

[Pete Rose]

On captaincy, Wasim had a rebellion on his first stint.
Also he was a poor captain when it came to the stronger teams of his test era. Imran came out respectable vs Windies despite having lesser resources than Wasim

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Very good post.I agree with it.

 

[mmkextreme_1]

Congratulations, you deserve it. Was a great write-up. Gives one a true inside about Imran Khan and how he differed to Wasim Akram. Your point of where he truly kick-started Pakistan legacy and love for fast bowling. This point in itself changed our cricket forever, to this day "pace is pace yaar" comes from that legacy.

 

[subshakerz]

Thank you!

 

[Muhammad10]

Top post. Well deserved!