NEW DELHI: Nov 19: India’s cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya on Wednesday rubbished media speculation 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 Kolkata office.

“The matter was never discussed with Wasim, nor has he ever broached the subject before us.”

The Indian Express said in a front page story on Wednesday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had agreed to a request from captain Sourav Ganguly and coach John Wright to hire Wasim for the upcoming tour of Australia.

“Why Wasim? 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.

Wasim has signed by Rupert Murdoch’s television company, ESPN-Star Sports, to commentate on India’s four-Test series in Australia starting next month.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani court has been asked to stop former cricket captain Wasim Wasim from accepting an offer to coach rival India, court officials said Wednesday.

“India is our enemy, and for money Wasim should not be allowed to coach the enemy. It is tantamount to a retired army official training the Indian army,” Najmul Abbas, an individual not associated with any cricketing body, said in his petition to a civil court in Pakistan’s eastern city Lahore.

Wasim, 37, has been asked to appear on Friday to respond to the petition.

The lawyer representing Abbas, Ansar Mahmood Bajwar, said the world class bowler was a weapon Pakistan could not afford to share.

“Wasim is like a nuclear weapon and with Indians due to come to Pakistan next year the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) must stop him from grooming Indian fast bowlers,” Bajwa said.

The same lawyer is fighting a separate case against Wasim for modelling in a liquor advertisement in India.

Wasim, who retired from international cricket in May this year, is currently in India as a guest of local sports television programmes.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is considering a request from captain Sourav Ganguly and coach John Wright to hire Wasim as the bowling coach of the national team.

A top PCB officila said Wasim was free to take coaching assignments.—AFP