My first memories of watching the ‘Sultan of Swing’ Wasim Akram bowl to his opponents are from back in the day: Akram with his accurate and brutal left-arm swing pairing up with the toe-crushing yorkers coming out of the fast, pacy hands of his bowling partner Waqar Younis. Whether in Test whites or in Pakistani olive greens, the two gentlemen terrorized many a batsman in their heyday of glory. Sultan: A Memoir is one of the most viciously honest, even visceral autobiographical accounts of a life in sport and the many controversies and conflicts that are sure to plague that of a man constantly in the spotlight for as long as Wasim Akram had been. Akram’s story (told in collaboration with Australian broadcaster and cricket writer Gideon Haigh) is as racy and electrifying as his bowling had been—covering with elan and gumption the highs and the lows of his long and illustrious cricketing career which moved in parallel with the many storms that challenged cricket in Pakistan.
July 2023, volume 47, No 7