Akram Quits

From the Echo, first published Monday 20th Oct 2003.

WASIM AKRAM has left Hampshire with immediate effect - on the advice of his doctors.

Pakistan legend Wasim, 37, was expected to play his sixth championship game for Hampshire against Glamorgan this morning until Paul Terry broke the shock news to his players at the Rose Bowl yesterday.

Wasim, who signed a one year contract at the start of the season, has struggled with health problems since his move to the south coast.

Last year he revealed that he is a diabetic as a direct result of the stress caused by match fixing allegations against him.

Wasim has had to have insulin injections before and after every game he has played this season but in May it was a bout of tonsillitis that forced him to pull out of the championship match against Somerset on the morning of the first day's play.

He has been suffering with a fever for the last week and in the last home game against Gloucestershire he suffered a bruised toe that ruled him out of last week's championship match at Northampton.

Now he has left midway through an already miserable season for Hamp-shire, who were second from bottom of when play began this morning.

Hampshire captain John Crawley, a team-mate of Wasim's for the best part of a decade at Lancashire, said: "It's obviously a real shame for everyone involved.

"With any job there are stresses and that goes for the job that we do. Wasim thought about it long and hard but, at the end of the day, your family and your own health are more important than your career."

Wasim, the only player to have taken more than 900 international wickets, leaves Hampshire as the club's leading wicket-taker in all cricket this season.

Crawley added: "We've seen glimpses of what Was is capable of, he hasn't been as consistent as he would have liked but whenever he got out there he tried his heart out. We are very appreciative of his efforts and we wish him well in the future."

Director of cricket Tim Tremlett said: "Wasim proved to be a very valuable and popular member of the team and we are very sad to be losing him."

Hampshire Cricket are now in the process of trying to find a replacement overseas player.

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