Wasim Akram broadened the scope of what could be done in his art with talent and hard work. On the other side Waqar Younis, who really put the reverse into swing, who bucked the 1980s trend of pitching fast, after his retirement has confessed that he has a regret of past issues with Wasim Akram. He cares for the people who were around him on that time. He also compares the previous and present system of cricket.
While talking to ESPNcricinfo, Waqar said "I am really good friends with Wasim bhai, he has always been an elder brother. He has always supported and helped me on the field, off the field. Yeah, we had issues. He didn't only have issues with me but we had issues in the team those days, which yes, if you ask me the truth, yes I do regret at times because you know it did not really help Pakistan cricket. But then again if you look at it, we had issues off the field but when we walked on to the field it was different ball game altogether. We wanted to compete with each other, we wanted to take more wickets than the other one and I think in a way, it did help. But yeah, if you ask me that particular episode, yes, we all regret it because it shouldn't have happened.”
"You know I had Wasim Akram who had already played for a little while, Azeem Hafeez was just sort of finishing, Saleem Jaffar was there, we had Imran Khan and we had some serious fast-bowling chain up at the top when I came. So it was just easier to learn just by watching them, not really telling them or asking them for anything, just by watching them it teaches you a lot. I back the system through which I have come but also there were people there to help you, there to show you how things are done and I was very lucky." he added.
He thought the system was a little bit better than what Pakistan has now facing. According to him, most of his learning was on the job, from the likes of Imran Khan and Akram. He also felt the standard of first-class level in Pakistan had diminished with too many teams being involved and advocated serious competition to produce quality cricketers.
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