NEW DELHI, 20 November 2003 — India’s cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya yesterday rubbished reports that Pakistani legend Wasim Akram was being hired as the bowling coach of the national team.
“I don’t know why some people are making such speculation. We never even thought of it,” Dalmiya told reporters at his Calcutta office.
“The matter was never discussed with Akram, nor has he ever broached the subject before us.”
The Indian Express said in a front-page story yesterday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had agreed to a request from captain Saurav Ganguly and coach John Wright to hire Akram for the upcoming tour of Australia.
“Why Akram? Simply because he is the greatest fast bowler of the modern era,” the newspaper quoted Ganguly as saying.
The brilliant 37-year-old left-armer retired from cricket in May with 414 Test wickets and a world record tally of 502 wickets in the shorter version of the game.
Akram has been signed up by Rupert Murdoch’s television company, ESPN-Star Sports, to commentate on India’s four-Test series in Australia starting next month.
The Indian team, which departs for Australia tomorrow, includes three left-arm seamers — Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and rookie Irfan Pathan.
The Indian government last month ended a three-year boycott of bilateral cricket matches against Pakistan, paving the way for the archrivals to schedule a long-awaited Test series in Pakistan in March-April next year.
India last played a Test match in Pakistan in 1989. Akram was the Pakistan captain during a three-Test tour of India in 1999.
India open their tour of Australia with two warm-up matches before the first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane from Dec. 4.
The second Test will be played in Adelaide from Dec. 12 to 16 followed by the third at Melbourne (Dec. 26-30) and the fourth at Sydney (Jan. 2-6).
