he world of cricket has seen many legends, but none quite like Wasim Akram. The Pakistani fast bowler, who terrorised batsmen with his incredible swing and pace at one point, has opened up about his life in a riveting autobiography titled Sultan: A Memoir.

The first thing you will feel after finishing this book is a sense of refreshment. Generally, sports biographies talk about the highest and lowest points on the field and dwell on details of the moments we have lived hundreds of times with highlights. Here, the country’s – and probably the world’s – finest fast bowler talks about his unsettled childhood, his personal and professional growth as a player, his addiction to drugs, loss of the love of his life, and finding love again, his shortcomings as a father, and setting the record straight twenty years since he played his last international. If anything, this just shows that even with his autobiography, Akram has tried to do things his way.

Let’s look at some of the hard facts first. Wasim Akram is Pakistan’s leading wicket-taker in both Tests (414 wickets) and One Day Internationals (502 wickets). With the non-stop T20 cricket, it is doubtful anyone will be able to surpass his record soon. He has the second-highest number of wickets in ODIs and has the third-most player-of-the-match awards in Test cricket. He has the third-highest number of ducks in ODIs, while his highest individual score in Test is more than what Sachin Tendulkar could achieve during his brilliant career. He led Pakistan in 109 ODIs and 25 Tests in various stints during the 1990s and ended up being barred from holding any leadership role in the conclusive report on match-fixing by a High Court judge. Rising from the gullies of Lahore, he spent a decade serving Lancashire cricket county, where fans would sing “Wasim for England,” leading them to NatWest Trophy and Sunday League championships. That’s just Wasim Akram for you.

Interestingly, this is his second biography. The first one, titled Wasim, was released in 1998 when his most significant challenges were still ahead of him. His second effort, twenty years later, is a much more sober exercise. It is not just about cricket but also about the human spirit. He describes his challenges, including his struggles with diabetes and losing his wife, Huma, to cancer. Throughout the book, he emphasises the importance of perseverance, hard work and dedication.

The book opens with a trip to his old place, and we delve into his early and sometimes difficult childhood. It is well known that his first break came with the full support of then-captain Javed Miandad. The legend goes that he had refused to take the team to New Zealand without Akram. At this point in his life, he meets Imran Khan – someone who would have a long-lasting influence and impression on his professional and personal life. Throughout the book, you notice Imran Khan popping up during important moments of his life, as he usually called him for advice. Imran Khan had already been around for longer than a decade when Akram made his debut. They would play together for another eight years, leading Pakistan to its finest day in ODI cricket. Akram was in awe of Khan, and after all these years, you can still see the affection and gratitude for his cricketing mentor in his writing.

Akram was mentored by two of the finest captains in the country, but it was his stint playing English country cricket that led to some phenomenal personal and professional growth. He spent over a decade playing for Lancashire and later returned for another stint with Hampshire. Those ten years distinguished him (and still do) from his teammates. Throughout the book, you find small anecdotes about how he managed to live learn, and even invest on his own. Fortunately, during this time, he met his first wife, Dr Huma, who became integral to his growth.

If Imran Khan is a constant feature in his professional growth, Huma takes the front seat in his personal life. She is a constant throughout the book, taking care of and supporting him through thick and thin, especially when he talks about his addiction to cocaine. She was there with him at every step, and her loss threw him into a downward spiral where he and his sons suffered. It doesn’t happen with everyone, but it’s heartening to see that he found another great partner in the form of Shaniera. The journey wasn’t smooth, but the guy “who is kind of a big deal in South Asia” finally found peace again.

He enjoyed captaincy, but it wasn’t a bed of roses for him. He had multiple stints as captain throughout the 1990s when the Pakistan cricket team leadership was more of a musical-chairs concept. To his credit that he is remembered as one of the finest captains in the country. After being named man of the match in the successful 1992 campaign, he led the country in the 1996 and 1999 World Cup tournaments, playing in the final of the latter. However, the results from that era were often questioned due to numerous allegations. He talks about the lack of Board support during his leadership and often paints a picture where he had no trustworthy comrades in his team. He describes the qualities and shortcomings of players in his team but, for instance, shies away from questions like his rifts with Waqar Younis.

If you are a cricket fan, then you know where this conversation is heading by now. Since the 1990s, allegations of match-fixing and players underperforming on purpose have been around without any definite conclusion. There have been life bans on players like Salim Malik and Atta-ur Rehman (overturned a few years later), and almost all leading players of that era, including Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar, Mushtaq Ahmed and Inzamam-ul Haq were fined following the Malik Qayyum inquiry of 2000.

You can sense that addressing these allegations was one of the primary motives for Akram for this book. It is interesting to see this since he has nothing to prove in any court. His status has only risen, with people of my generation still bringing up YouTube clips of his bowling whenever there is a debate about the greatest left-arm fast bowler. He is already part of the ICC and PCB Hall of Fame, and 9 out of 10 times, he is an automatic choice for any World XI chosen by his contemporaries. But perhaps he felt it was time to tell his side of the story and say things that were never said before, maybe to his children. However, this is also the point when one feels that the fearsome Sultan is slightly defensive in his tone. He addresses the match-fixing allegations, the evidence, and the role of players like Aamer Sohail and Rashid Latif, but his defence does not go beyond the fact that nothing was proven against him in a court of law. He casually discusses some of the allegations against friends and family and quickly dismisses them. The report itself never really gave any satisfactory answers, and over the years, it has become more of a folklore where most people commenting on it have never really read it. Akram says that he never read the report himself until he started writing this book, which is surprising since that report was arguably the only stain on his legacy. But then, he doesn’t care; he has lived life on his terms and continues to be the country’s second most popular or admired cricketer even after all these years.

Overall, Sultan is a must-read for cricket fans and anyone who loves a good autobiography. It is a powerful and inspiring story of a man who overcame adversity to achieve greatness. It is an account of a true cricketing icon and a reminder that sometimes the greatest battles are fought off the field.

Sultan: A Memoir

Authors: Gideon Haigh

and Wasim Akram

Publisher: Liberty Books, 2023

Pages: 304

Price: Rs 1,595

The reviewer is a digital communication expert and consultant in the public sector. He is the mastermind behind the digital platforms Sukhan, Mani’s Cricket Myths and Over The Line