Former Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar is known for making controversial statements but one that no one can take away from him is the fact that he was an express pace bowler and arguably the fastest of them all in modern day cricket.
Recently during a conversation with Pakistani presenter Sawera Pasha on her Youtube show Cric Cast, Akhtar opened up about how he felt when his express pace deliveries would hit batsmen.
“In first class cricket when I played for English county Worcestershire, I hit quite a few batsmen. And then it seemed like ‘Oh God I have done something wrong’. I could never understand why I was so mean.
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“One incident that I remember is with Matthew Maynard of Glamorgan. It was dull in the evening and the light was not great so I told him, ‘let’s go off because my pace is not comfortable to face at this time. So if you want we can go off’.
“But he said ‘let’s face you’. So I went around the wicket and bowled a fast bouncer. It wasn’t very dark but I felt it would be difficult to face my pace. The ball hit him on the face and he fell on the wickets. I thought ‘this guy is dead’.
{{/usCountry}}“But he said ‘let’s face you’. So I went around the wicket and bowled a fast bouncer. It wasn’t very dark but I felt it would be difficult to face my pace. The ball hit him on the face and he fell on the wickets. I thought ‘this guy is dead’.
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“He fell on the wickets, got out and was in a lot of pain. So yeah, every time I hit someone I felt bad,” Akhtar said recalling his days in English County cricket scene.
Shoaib Akhtar played 46 Tests, 163 ODIs and 15 T20Is for Pakistan and picked up more than 400 wickets across all formats.