Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram, hailed as one of the best bowlers ever produced was surprisingly quite naive about the game itself.

Sharing a hilarious encounter with Javed Miandad, the sultan of swing revealed that he had no idea that you are paid to play cricket, in early days of his career.

Former captain of Pakistan, also known as King of Swing, shared an old memory of his cricket career in an interview to Gulf News.

In first part of the story He told how he got selected. “I got picked to play for Pakistan after I bowled brilliantly to the great Javed Miandad who came to the nets of a coaching camp that I attended. One of the selectors saw me bowl well and picked me for a first-class game against New Zealand,” said Akram.

“In my debut first-class game, I took seven wickets for 50 runs and two wickets in the second innings, for a nine-wicket haul. Then I got picked for the New Zealand tour,” he added.

“After getting picked, when I asked my captain Miandad as to how much money I should be taking with me for the tour. Miandad replied, “Rupees 100,000.” That, to me, in 1984 was a lot of money. When I told him I would not be able to come as my dad would not give me that much money, he started laughing,” the 51-year-old said.

“Frankly, I never knew players get paid for playing cricket and that too for the country!” he added.