Martin Crowe played really well against me and Waqar Younis: Wasim Akram

New Delhi: Former Pakistani speedster Wasim Akram, widely regarded as one of the finest pacers to have played the game, was a nightmare for the best of batsmen with his unplayable swinging deliveries.

The ‘Swing of Sultan’, who picked 924 wickets during his glittering career, was recently asked in a conversation with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to share anecdotes about the toughest opponents he bowled against during his career with Pakistan.

In his reply, Pakistan's former skipper said, “I played against greats of the greats of the game starting from Viv Richards to Desmond Haynes to Gordon Greenidge to Allan Border to Sunil Gavaskar when I started off all these massive massive names. Everybody was unbelievable to play against and for me, these were my heroes, I used to have their posters in my room. I would read cricketing magazines in Urdu, their records.”

The 50-year-old also shared stories from his childhood where he would save money to buy cricket magazines and read about his heroes. Akram, who has bowled to several legends in different eras, picked New Zealand's Martin Crowe as the best batsman he and his partner Waqar Younis bowled to.

“Every month I used to save money to buy the magazine called Akhbar e Watan that was in Urdu. I think every era had their greats but if I had to pick one batsman who played really well against me and Waqar (Younis), it has to be Martin Crowe,” he said.

Watch Akram's interview here:

Crowe, who played 77 tests and 143 one-day internationals for New Zealand in a 13-year career. He scored 5,444 test runs at an average of 45.36 with 17 centuries.

He succumbed to cancer on March 3, 2016.