ISLAMABAD Former Skipper Wasim Akram believed that Pakistan was the Brazil of cricket, owing to the type of raw talent in the country. “Raw talent in Pakistan, is like Brazil of cricket,”Wasim said in an interaction with Australian batsman Dean Jones on a YouTube channel. “You (Pakistan) are the talent factory. InAustralia we used to say that Pakistan have so much talent. In Australia we don’t have kids playing till 24 or 25 but you have kids playing at 7, 8, 9 and 16,” Jones said. Wasim and Jones noted that the pool of talent Pakistan brings into cricket, was like Brazil in football. “Pakistanis bring different techniques to international cricket, different attitudes fast bowlers like yourself (Wasim) and Waqar Younis, ShoaibAkhtar, and of course Abdul Qadir and MushtaqAhmed and all these great bowlers that are coming through even now,” he said. Jones, who is the Pakistan Super League (PSL) team Karachi Kings coach, noted that while cricket was always big in the country but the team’s dominance in the 1980’s and their victory in the 1992 World Cup were important catalysts. “It’s been great for a long time but really started to turn big time in the late 80s when Imran Khan took over, when you rip England apart in front of a 100 thousand people at MCG (in 1992) was amazing,” he said.—APP
