Hungry Wasim looks for an England encore

It didn't take Wasim Akram long to make his England tour intentions clear last week. Four balls of the opening match, to be exact.

Balls four, five and seven. Three wickets without conceding a run.

Never mind that it was against the British Universities. In fact, that was the whole point.

In normal circumstances Wasim, the only player in history to take more than 400 wickets in both tests and one-dayers, would not need to turn out against a bunch of students on a chilly, damp morning at a sparsely-populated Trent Bridge. Especially after just returning from injury.

These are not normal times, however.

Wasim knows he is on probation after Pakistan's new captain Waqar Younis -- a man with whom he has not seen eye to eye in the past -- suggested the England tour could be the ideal time to blood the team's next generation of pace bowlers.

Wasim responded on Friday with three wickets in his first and second overs as British Universities were dismissed for 74 on their way to a hefty innings defeat.

LITTLE TO PROVE
As a player, Wasim has little to prove. He is already assured of going down in history as one of the cricketing greats, alongside the likes of Gary Sobers, Kapil Dev, Ian Botham, Richard Hadley and his former mentor Imran Khan.

He has won one World Cup, in 1992, and led his team to another final seven years later.

His batting and bowling figures compare with the best.

It is only his goodwill statistics that need sharp improvement.

Indeed, Wasim's image may never recover after he was implicated in a match-fixing investigation in Pakistan last year.

He protested his innocence and was given the benefit of the doubt after former team mate Ata-ur-Rehman accused Wasim of paying him to underperform in a match before withdrawing the allegation. But Pakistan, on the advice of investigating judge Malik Qayyum, still stripped Wasim of the captaincy and imposed a fine.

MUD STICKS
Mud sticks. When Wasim's marvelously talented Pakistan team, already qualified for the next phase of the tournament, contrived to lose to Bangladesh in the 1999 World Cup, the tongues wagged again.

Cricket is Wasim's only remaining weapon. If he cannot convince his detractors of his integrity, he can at least remind them that he can play.

He and Waqar destroyed England in 1992 with an unprecedented exhibition of high-class bowling, giving the hosts a shock introduction to the art of reverse swing. He returned in 1996 to lead his team to their third successive series win here.

Team coach Richard Pybus thinks Wasim is determined to produce an encore.

"He's sharp, fresh and hungry. A lot of passion is still burning," said Pybus.

"He had a really rough time around the 1999 World Cup, with all the innuendo and people sharpening their knives. The guy's only human. If you do well (in Pakistan) you are a god, if you fail everybody wants a piece of you.

"He can relax here."

Pybus just has to look at Wasim, rather than his bowling figures, to know he means business.

"There's no comparison to his physical condition in 1999, when I last worked with him," he said. "He's lost four or five kilos. And where is he now? In the gym."

Mail Cricket Editor