‘Maybe they play for themselves’: Moin Khan to Wasim Akram on current cricketers

Former Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman Moin Khan in a conversation with Wasim Akram, said the current lot of cricketers perhaps play a lot for themselves

Former Pakistan wicket-keeper Moin Khan spoke at length regarding differences between current players and his generation during a conversation with former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram.

Moin Khan (Screen grab)

Moin, one of the greatest wicket-keepers ever to play for Pakistan, stated they used to idolise their predecessors and tried to reach their level of performances, something which is missing in today’s generation.

“People come and tell us your generation had amazing players. My personal opinion is that we used to idolise great players who came before us,” Moin told Akram in a video uploaded on BSport Pakistan’s YouTube channel.

“We tried to reach their standard and set the bar high for ourselves. Nowadays, players tend not to compare their performances against others. Maybe they are just playing for themselves, that could be one of the reasons. Also, there are lot of cricketers these days due to T20 cricket so consistency is a bit difficult for players these days,” he added.

Wasim too chipped in and revealed his aim was to surpass his hero Imran Khan’s records when he first came into the team.

“When I broke into the team, my aim was to take more wickets than Imran Khan. When you came into the team your mindset must be to take more catches and effect more stumpings than your heroes, Akram said.

“I used to idolise my heroes what they used to do. How many catches they had, how they used to play. How much hard work I will have to put in to beat their mark. Inzamam-ul-Haq, my roommate, he was also the same. He used to say ‘he has scored these many runs and now I will have to score more’,” Moin said.