England should apologize to Pakistan says Akram

[Mike]

Pakistan bowling great Wasim Akram says England should apologise for accusing his team of cheating in 1992 when they used reverse swing - the same tactics which helped England win the Ashes.

"England owe us an apology in a big way," Akram said.

"When we did the reverse swing against England in 1992, they were great moaners and groaners of the world, they termed it as cheating.

"And now when they achieved an Ashes win through reverse swing, it's an art," Akram said.

http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200509/s1461607.htm

Pakistani bowlers Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed were accused of ball-tampering during the team's tour of England in 1992. However, no action was taken against these players. Given that England used legitimate means to reverse the ball in last year's Ashes, should the ECB and English media now apologize to Pakistan for accusing them of ball-tampering?

From Wikipedia:

The series was a controversial one as the Pakistani team got accused of ball tampering, particularly by the English media. They couldn’t understand how a ball that old could swing that much. But the English media got their answer as this art expanded around the cricket world and more and more bowlers started to master reverse swing. English bowlers themselves used this as one of the weapons to win The Ashes series 2-1 against Australia in 2005. In the end, it was concluded that the Pakistani bowlers were simply ahead of their time.

In relation to the current ball-tampering crisis, will the ICC apologize to the Pakistan team for it's umpire Darrell Hair's wrongful decision to penalize Pakistan for ball-tampering given that no video evidence was found to show that Pakistan illegally tampered with the ball?

[Ernest]

All this Pakistan talk about an apology from England is no more that "Chaff".

Chaff as anyone knows is used to divert weapons fired against targets.

In this case I would suggest the target is Inzi, and the chaff is being fired by all these ex Pakistan and England county players to divers Flack away from the issue of ball tampering.

Wasim Akram is doing a spendid job of generating enough chaff to take Inzi out of the public gaze, and put England in the frame.


the English Media are not renowned for backing down from anyone, a plethera of top polititions, and even the Royal family have come under their scrutany, if Wasim Akram thinks he can influence the UK media, then good luck to him - he will also no doubt be able to walk on water also if he achieves that.

And the ICC apologise LOL.

[DomainK]

Didnt expect this from Akram. He is a matured man. He must have been quite hurt in 1992 and the emotions now have a reason to start flowing again.

[Maranello]

Good one Mike, quoting an article dated September 2005 as if it was published today!

Originally Posted by Ernest 109186

Wasim Akram is doing a spendid job of generating enough chaff to take Inzi out of the public gaze, and put England in the frame.

eh? Akram said these things almost one year ago, when they were quite topical and relevant, as Lancashire's Flintoff took wickets through reverse-swing! Where does Inzi come into it?

Originally Posted by Ernest 109186

the English Media are not renowned for backing down from anyone

I agree that the media will not apologise. Firstly, there is no single entity called the "media" anyway; just a number of independent business orgnanisations, none of whom are renowned for their morality. In any case, the editors and reporters who vilified and abused Akram and Waqar in 1992 have probably left those publications anyway; why should the 2005 editor apologise for the mistakes of a chap who was in that job 13 years ago?

Originally Posted by DomainK 109192

Didnt expect this from Akram. He is a matured man..

What exactly did he do that so outrages you? It is a matter of fact that he was insulted, abused and condemned maliciously by the English media and many cricket people there. Hence the English media and supporters' behaviour has been hypocritical in this one aspect - criticise Akram and Younis in 1992, abuse and insult them, and call it cheating when they do it for Pakistan; condone it when they do it for Surrey and Lancs, and positively revel in it and praise it to high-heaven when those doing it are English (ie Jones and Flintoff). I do agree though that a retrospective apology, 13 or 14 years after the event, is pointless.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Maranello

eh? Akram said these things almost one year ago, when they were quite topical and relevant, as Lancashire's Flintoff

OK fair cop - I never followed the link to look at the date - oh well I got that wrong - see an Englishman apologising .

[DomainK]

Originally Posted by Maranello

What exactly did he do that so outrages you?

He should not bring in old controversies back at this time when emotions are flowing. Pakistani fans already enough things to feel bad about and this is a very wrong time to ask for apology for what happened so many days ago.

[batoutofhell]

it clearly shows how badly we asians are targeted by the icc and some other teams of the world
if we do anything which is unique,immediately it is questioned and accused of wrongdoing
if the same done by a non asian will receive praise from their country and ashes trophy

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by DomainK

He should not bring in old controversies back at this time when emotions are flowing.

Please read my posts here. He pointed this out a year ago, when the issue was indeed very relevant and it was the ideal time to bring up the double-standards and the hypocrisy (though the apology was just unrealistic).

In any case, what happened in 1992 and 2005 is a direct cause of the way events have panned out in August-2006. One may not agree with that, but nonetheless, the past does have a very strong bearing on the present.

[DomainK]

Friday, September 16, 2005......I didnt notice its such an old article.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Maranello

Good one Mike, quoting an article dated September 2005 as if it was published today!

Good pickup, Maranello. I didn't mean to mislead anyone but I think it has relevance today. Wasim might have been seen as whinging last year but this latest incident puts it in another light. The Pakistan team must feel a great injustice has been done by Hair given that England were reversing the ball as early as the 15th over (not 51st over) last year and the umpires never even questioned it. Given that England proved that legally "preparing" the ball to reverse swing is possible early in the match and that no video evidence of ball-tampering was found in the Oval match on what grounds has Pakistan been called for ball-tampering? If legal methods of ball-management have been around before 1992, on what grounds were Wasim and Waquar accused of ball-tampering in 1992? The ICC have got a lot of explaining to do. Since they have sullied the reputation of many top players, I hope they produce evidence of ball-tampering in this case, otherwise they should make ammends and retrospectively clear the names of all those players who were charged with ball-tampering in the past.