Andrew Flintoff reveals Wasim Akram’s influence on his career
England’s legendary all-rounder Andrew Flintoff revealed the tremendous influence on his career of Pakistan’s pace bowler Wasim Akram. This came to the fore after the banter between the two on Twitter today (19th May, Tuesday). The original conversation was about Flintoff’s first-class debut and the Englishman shared a humorous story about it.
“@BumbleCricket said I was the best slip catcher he’d ever seen” ?
“I dropped 3 catches before lunch… @wasimakramlive shouted ‘get him out of there!'” ?@flintoff11‘s First-Class debut didn’t exactly go to plan!
➡ https://t.co/zOfz63fSKd pic.twitter.com/VZuQ2gqpuf
— Lancashire Cricket (@lancscricket) May 16, 2020
Akram quoted the tweet and added his comment, “And look at you now @flintoff11. It’s called Tough love and we raised you well.”
Flintoff acknowledged this and replied to the Pakistani legend with tremendous respect.
And I’ll never be able to thank you enough for the impact you had on my career and life @wasimakramlive x https://t.co/2Qx4z6EteM
— Andrew Flintoff (@flintoff11) May 19, 2020
Flintoff made his first-class debut for Lancashire against Hampshire in 1995, with Akram leading the side. The debutant was placed in the slip cordon since former England cricketer David Lloyd had praised him as ‘the best slip catcher he has ever seen’. Flintoff went on to drop 3 catches before lunch and Akram shouted to “get him out of there”. The all-rounder exclaimed, “I was 17 years old and one of the world’s greatest cricketer shouting get him out of there.”
