Wasim Akram is regarded as one of the greatest bowlers to ever play the game and former Australian pacer Brett Lee shared an anecdote which depicts the greatness of the left-arm Pakistan pacer. Lee, who was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders camp in IPL, worked under Akram during his tenure with the franchise.
Akram claimed 502 ODI wickets during his illustrious career as he was known for his reverse swinging deliveries which troubled a lot of batters across the world.
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Lee, who himself was one of the fastest bowlers to play the game, went down memory lane to share an incident where Akram plotted Jacques Kallis’ dismissal in the nets session of KKR when the other bowlers were struggling to challenge the legendary all-rounder.
“I have got arguably the greatest cricketer Jacques Kallis playing for KKR, batting at one end, and we are bowling at the centre wicket. I am saying to my bowling coach standing behind me – just happens to be Wasim Akram!,” Lee said on his YouTube Channel Brett Lee TV.
The legendary Aussie pacer asked Akram on how to approach the bowling against someone line Kallis to which the then KKR coach said, “Try and shape the ball away, you may want to change the position of the seam there.”
Lee recalled that he and other KKR bowlers tried hard to get the better of Kallis with the new ball on a fresh surface but Kallis was batting with total ease and had no troubles facing them.
“I am trying really hard to get Kallis out but this guy is going bang bang. I could not get Jacques Kallis out. All our bowlers were struggling with a brand new ball on a brand new wicket, and Kallis was making it look so easy,” he added.
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Lee said that Akram decided to roll the arms after witnessing Kallis’s mastery in the nets as he told him about his four-ball plan to dismiss the Proteas great.
“He warms his shoulders up, He had sand shoes on, no spikes and I ask him, what are you going to do? I will take four back in and one away,” Lee recalls Akram telling him. “ I go whaaat? That simple?”
The Aussie pacer further recalled how Kallis gave some respect to Akram on a couple of deliveries.
“The action starts with Kallis showing respect to Akram and he did the same in the following delivery. Then came the change as Akram swung the back into him but Kallis played it comfortably,”
“The seam is now a fraction straighter and he swings the ball back in. Once again, same result, Jacques Kallis flat bats (it),” Lee says.
Akram’s plan was working as then he executed his final trick and took the ball away from him and got the job done.
“Now comes the sucker punch. As he walked back, he winked at me, and said ‘watch this!’ He turned the ball over and did that with the seam position (Lee shows how the seam is now pointing towards first slip), and took one away straight.”
“Nick and gone!”
“And I said, Mate! You are a genius!” Lee said.
“We were bowling all day to get Jacques Kallis out and he does with exactly as he said four balls with no spikes on, uneven rubbers, and that sums up,” he added.
Lee further heaped praises on Akram and said that he made bowling fun and said the primary reason behind his greatness was his cricketing brain.
“The reason Akram was such a great bowler as he had it upstairs (Lee taps his head). You don’t often find a bowler who is a great captain and also a great leader. He had all the three. Wasim bhai made bowling fun, it made it exciting, he made left-armers cool, a wonderful fellow, a great commentator and one of my favourites to watch,” he said.
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