In an exclusive interview with PakPassion.net, Wajahatullah Wasti shared his thoughts on his short-lived international career including his participation in the 1999 World Cup final, the challenges of being an opening batsman and Pakistan cricket's quest to find suitable openers as well as problems with fielding.

May 28th 2012

A right-handed opening batsman known for his watchful approach and the ability to occupy the crease for long periods of time, Wajahatullah Wasti represented Pakistan on 29 occasions. In the 6 Tests that he played, the Peshawar-born batsman scored 329 runs, including two centuries at an average of 36.55. 

Wasti last represented Pakistan twelve years ago and is now the coach at Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited - the team that consists of a number of international cricketers, including Imran Nazir, Yasir Hameed and Sohail Tanvir. 

In an exclusive interview with PakPassion.net, Wajahatullah Wasti shared his thoughts on his short-lived international career including his participation in the 1999 World Cup final, the challenges of being an opening batsman and Pakistan cricket's quest to find suitable openers as well as problems with fielding.

PakPassion.net: To many observers of your game, you have always been considered as a batsmen whose sole purpose was to occupy the crease and score at a steady pace. Your thoughts on this perception? 

Wajahatullah Wasti: At the time I was with the team, we had a lot of big names. We had Javed Miandad as coach, and then later Richard Pybus. Our senior players were playing in the middle order and they preferred to not face the new ball, so the plan was that the openers play for as long as possible to make batting easier for them. When I used to go out to bat I would always play for the team. Fact is that when I was playing in Peshawar, we used to play 30 over cricket matches and we would easily score 160 runs! So to say I was a limited player who would only stay at the crease is incorrect. I feel it is incorrect to label a player as a ‘Test’ player. A player that can play Test match, can play any form of cricket whether it be T20 or ODIs.


PakPassion.net: Against Sri Lanka in the Asian Test Championship in 1999, you hit your first and second Test century. How did that feel? 

Wajahatullah Wasti: It was a great feeling. It was my second Test match, after I played my first in Calcutta. In that Test (in Calcutta) I scored 6 and then 9 in the second innings. Wasim Akram was our captain then and he spoke to me and gave me another chance to play in the next match in Lahore and in both innings in that game, I scored a century. It is every players dream to play for Pakistan. I not only got to fulfil that dream and play for Pakistan but I also performed exceptionally well for my country.


PakPassion.net: You were also a part of the 1999 World Cup team. How was that experience? 

Wajahatullah Wasti: Again it was a wonderful feeling. Playing in a World Cup is also a dream come true for any player. Only the superior players are selected to play in a World Cup. Due to my prayers, I was not able to just be selected but I also scored 84 runs in a semi final and got to play in a World Cup final. I am very thankful to Allah, and it brings me great joy whenever I watch those games on video.


PakPassion.net: You did play with the great Saeed Anwar, how did it feel to play alongside one of the best openers in the world? 

Wajahatullah Wasti: Very, very good experience. It is quite enjoyable to play with Saeed Anwar. If you are at the other end, there is less pressure on you to score. To play with a player who you have looked up to as an idol brought me a great deal of joy.


PakPassion.net: You did play a lot of your international cricket under the captaincy of Wasim Akram. How do you rate him as a captain? 

Wajahatullah Wasti: There have been some great captains who have come and gone. But the best thing about Wasim Akram was the way he handled the youngsters in the side. He never showed anger even if they erred. He supported them and when you get that sort of support from the captain it helps you perform as well as I did.


PakPassion.net: Given the strong showing in group and semi-final stages, it must have been a shock to lose in the final to Australia - what did go wrong for Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup Final? 

Wajahatullah Wasti: Look we both were strong teams coming into the final and we both had an even chance. Throughout the tournament, our strategy consisted of trying to win the toss and batting first as our bowling was our strong point with bowlers like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood. So we always preferred to bat first. We knew that if we scored over 200, our bowling had enough depth that we could contain the opposition side. Unfortunately that didn’t happen in the final and there was a particular good spell from McGrath. Then there were also a couple of incorrect decisions against Afridi and Razzaq. In the end, we tried our best but it was just not in our destiny. There were many rumours afterwards about fixing, etc. but I do not feel that there is any truth in it, as there was no one that was more disappointed in losing the final than all of us.


PakPassion.net: In terms of opportunities, you received little to establish yourselves in the team, particularly considering that finding a good opening batsmen had been a troubling issue since the retirements of Aamir Sohail and Saeed Anwar. Why do you think that was the case? 

Wajahatullah Wasti: If you fail in a game, it can be hard to fight your way back into the team. Particularly if you are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where unlike other regions, it is harder for someone to support you and put your case forward. Compared to players from Lahore and Karachi, who may play and fail, but will make a comeback into the team after a couple of years away from the national side. But the boys from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa do not get the same treatment. That is the biggest problem that we do not have the supporters that others do. Even in the period that I was dropped I continued to perform and remained one of the best performing batsmen in first class cricket in Pakistan for the next 5 years, but I had little sympathy from selectors. I do not know why I was dropped, but I am satisfied with my performance during whatever time I was allowed to play for Pakistan.

I believe that the policies of current chairman, Zaka Ashraf, are very good. With the three different formats in domestic cricket - T20, ODIs, and First Class - players in all areas are giving the opportunities to perform. Also having three teams means that domestic players are getting plenty of opportunities to breaking into the sides. In 5-6 years time you will see these players start serving the national side. I think Pakistani domestic structure will improve immensely.


PakPassion.net: In the era that you played cricket, there were several great bowlers. Out of all the bowlers you faced during that time, who would you say was the most difficult to face? 

Wajahatullah Wasti:In my view, opening the batting is the most difficult job in cricket as the ball is swinging a lot early on the innings. With that said, in all the time that I have played cricket up until my retirement, I would say that the most difficult bowler to face was Glenn Mcgrath of Australia.


PakPassion.net: What would you say is your best innings or one that is most memorable for you?

Wajahatullah Wasti: The most memorable innings for me would be the innings from the 1999 World Cup Semi Final against New Zealand in which I scored 84 runs off 166 deliveries and helped Pakistan reach the finals.


PakPassion.net: During your time as a player in the domestic circuit, who are some of the players you would say that never got a chance to play for Pakistan, but would have done well had they gotten a chance?

Wajahatullah Wasti: There were a lot of talented players from my batch. Azhar Shafiq was one player who I feel would have done very well in the long term. Usman Tariq is another very talented left-handed opening batsman from Bahawalpur who never got a proper chance and is now settled in England. We've had a lot of talent that was wasted, with many of these players ending their association with Pakistani cricket as they settled abroad in different countries. The reason for this is that in domestic cricket they earn next to nothing and that is why I feel that they need to make domestic cricket more financially lucrative for players. In England, they have divisions and departments in their domestic cricket and when the season finishes, these players earn between 30-40 lac rupees. On the other hand, in domestic cricket in Pakistan, if a player is playing for a department, he will end up earning only 1.5 to 2 lac rupees in the season. If we want to improve the overall standard of cricket, we need to bring more money into domestic cricket. Also, we need to focus on departments rather than regions for our cricket. All of our big names in cricket - Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Azhar Mahmood, they all came from the departmental cricket and not from regional cricket. Currently, we are too heavily focused on regional cricket, which hasn't really benefitted us so far.


PakPassion.net: Who are some of the players, specifically openers that you feel should be in the current team?

Wajahatullah Wasti: One of them is Afaq Rahim, who plays for our club (ZTBL) and top-scored. Sharjeel Khan is another one who plays for Hyderabad but also with ZTBL and he scored about 1300-1400 runs in the season. Yasir Hameed also performed very consistently in domestic cricket - in the Twenty20 tournaments and the Pentangular Cup, but he was never called up. There are many such players who have been ignored and I am certain the selectors are aware of these players. However, these players need to be selected for the 'A' team so they can perform for Pakistan in the future.


PakPassion.net:Sohail Tanvir has not been able to cement his place in the Twenty20 side. He had a great start to his career, but presently he is considered an average player at best. What is the reason for this?

Wajahatullah Wasti: The main reason for this is that when he initially came into the team, he had a very unusual bowling action which made it difficult for the players to judge at first. As he continued to play in the team and in various Twenty20 tournaments, players began picking up his action. This is why players no longer have a problem playing him and as a result he gives away a lot of runs. Now that his action has been picked up, he looks an ordinary player.


PakPassion.net:In your opinion, what should an opener be focused on when facing the new ball?

Wajahatullah Wasti: An opener must know how to leave a ball and know where his off-stump is. Now we have several different versions of cricket, but I am specifically referring to technique in Test cricket. I believe that a player having a good technique in Test cricket will also be a good player in the ODI and T20 formats. As I mentioned earlier, as an opener you need to know where your off-stump is and also you must play the ball close to your body.


PakPassion.net:There are also openers such as Sehwag and Warner who have given opening a different meaning. What would you say about their technique and how has it affected the whole concept of an opener in general?

Wajahatullah Wasti: I feel that T20 cricket for all the entertainment it provides to crowds, has caused a lot of harm to openers and their technique. Nowadays, a team cannot play the full 50-overs because they are used to playing out only 20 overs. Teams can just about score 200-230 runs and as a result, the batsmen have lost the temperament of playing longer innings. While T20 has provided the crowd entertainment, it has damaged cricket. If you look all over the world, there is not much quality in cricket players to be seen and you no longer see the standard of cricket or players that would be seen in 1999-2003.

As far as Sehwag and Warner are concerned, they are both different types of players. If you notice, when these players are out of form, they are out of form for extended periods. This is because they have no real technique. As I mentioned earlier, in any cricket format it is absolutely necessary to have a technique.

PakPassion.net: Many people feel that Pakistan's fielding at both domestic and international level is quite poor. As ZTBL coach, how are you addressing this?

Wajahatullah Wasti: This is a good question, Pakistan have had this problem from the beginning and it continues to this day. The biggest reason for this is that there is no system at the grass roots level. If a child starts playing cricket, the first thing he should be taught is fielding. The other problem is that the best fielders are those that dive however, our grounds are so hard that if a player dives he badly grazes his knees and elbows. So first of all we need soft grounds. The good Australian and South African fielders around the world are used to diving on the ground. So our biggest problem is that our grounds are quite hard. We will have to work on this a lot and just as we concentrate on batting and bowling, fielding has become a very important aspect. If we focus on fielding at the grass roots level then we can produce good fielders, but it will always be a bit of a problem in Pakistan due to the grounds.


PakPassion.net: Have you done any work with Imran Nazir? What do you feel is his biggest problem? He has always been in and out of the national side.

Wajahatullah Wasti: Imran Nazir played with me on his debut in Lahore during the Asian Test Championships. When he first started out his technique was very good, and it still is. He performed very well at the beginning of his career - even in Test matches he had his own way of playing cricket. He is still playing like but he is having problems with the incoming ball and I have worked hard with him on those issues.

He has scored reasonably well in domestic cricket, both in 4 day and 1 day games. He has also has done well in T20s in recent times as we saw in the Faysal Bank Super 8 T20 Cup for Sialkot Stallions but unfortunately he has not been asked to attend any camp nor picked for the national team. If you keep ignoring a player of his quality then he will, naturally, become disheartened.

Imran has performed very well in the T20 format – firstly for The Lahore Badshahs in the now defunct ICL and in more recent times, he has played important innings for Sialkot Stallions and in as in the BPL. He continues to be ignored and hasn't been picked for the national side. The selectors need to take into consideration the format which is suited to a player’s style of play. Imran Nazir should be given a chance. His temperament used to be a problem but it has improved a lot and I think he is ready to make a comeback. Imran could be an inspired selection for the T20 World Cup later this year.



PakPassion.net: If Misbah Ul-Haq had been given a longer run when he first came into the national team, do you think it would have been better for Pakistan? Why do you think he couldn't cement his spot?

Wajahatullah Wasti: When he made his debut, there was a lot of competition in the middle order. The middle order was well established with the likes of Ijaz Ahmed, Miandad and Inzamam. Every player has a position and Misbah batted at 5 or 6 in domestic cricket. However, his technique in domestic cricket wasn't that good and he didn't shine there. When his technique improved, he had reached the age of 35/36, and only when Inzamam finished his career was he able to come into the team. He is still able to play due to his fitness levels, and God willing he will continue to perform for Pakistan. So the main reason that Misbah couldn't find a place in the team was because Inzamam was there, and also his technique didn't develop at that time. But I believe now he has a very sound technique and is playing very well for Pakistan.


PakPassion.net: Do you think the Pakistan team is more in need of a fast bowler or an all-rounder?

Wajahatullah Wasti: I think a batsman reaches maturity at the age of 26 or 27 - only at that age does he fully understand his role in the team. If you bring in batsmen at too early an age then they may perform in a couple of matches but could easily fail in a couple of series. Our openers have been around for a while but have only just started scoring runs. I feel that the vacuum created by the banning of Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif has not yet to be filled, so we do need to find a couple of extraordinary fast bowlers that can lift our team. Mohammad Sami, who has been reselected, has performed well in domestic cricket. Alongside Umar Gul, who has been doing well for a while now, the two bowlers can form a good partnership if they keep up their performances. In addition with an extraordinary spin bowler like Saeed Ajmal,our spin attack is already world class. If we can solve our fast bowling problem I think the Pakistan team can be the number 1 side in the world.

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