LAHORE: Former skipper Aamir Sohail believes the 1992 World Cup winning Pakistan captain Imran Khan inspired the young generation to become a fast-bowler, saying the legendary all-rounder set high standards in the game.

“Remember that 1977 Sydney Test when Imran bowled a spell with his shirt torn and when those pictures came out, it inspired the young generation,” Aamir said on his YouTube channel.

Aamir — who formed a very successful opening partnership with fellow left-handed batsman Saeed Anwar in the 1990s — said in the past Pakistan did not had the tradition of getting fast bowlers on regular basis or in huge numbers.

“Imran’s inspirational performances and his aura inspired the young generation to become a fast bowler and during 1980s we use to get good fast bowlers,” he said. “When you talk about Imran’s greatness and have to define him. He knew the way to inspire the youngsters.”

Aamir said the current Prime Minister of the country hated losing and winning was everything to him.

“The high standards he set, his guidance and knowledge helped players to become better and raise their game,” he said while adding the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed, Ata-ur-Rehman were many examples whom Imran mentored.

“We have results in front of us. Both Wasim and Waqar managed to pick 1,700 international wickets between them,” he said.

Aamir further pointed out that apart from Imran, Fazal Mahmood and Sarfraz Nawaz were also among the finest seamers produced by Pakistan.

“In the early period, Pakistan became a formidable Test-playing nation just because of Fazal Mahmood,” Aamir said. “I was the Pakistan captain in 1998 and we were practicing at the Gadaffi Stadium when Fazal called my name and sought permission to give some tips to Shoaib Akhtar. I told him it will be an honour for us but he said ‘no you are the captain and I need your permission’. Such was the discipline maintained by greats like him.

“He joked with Shoaib while telling him that he would have to pay me the fees for the tips he gave him. And the fees was in the form of taking Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket whenever playing against India.”

Speaking about Sarfraz, Aamir said he was a brilliant exponent of reverse swing. “In the March 1979 Test at Melbourne, Sarfraz’s produced one of the greatest performances, taking seven wickets for just one run in 33 balls while taking 9-86 to send Australia crashing from 305-3 to 310 all out, enabling Pakistan seal a 71-run victory.

“It was Sarfraz who imparted great skills to Imran who generated not only pace but made the ball reverse swing. This virtues tormented many batsmen in the world. No doubt, Imran was the greatest.” Aamir concluded.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2020