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From his love of books to winning the 1992 World Cup and meeting his childhood idol Imran Khan for the first time ever, cricket legend, Wasim Akram, the King of Swing was a people's man to a packed audience on a Thursday evening.
'I have always been fascinated by books and reading and coming to Sharjah International Book Fair, which is the world's third largest is an honour," said Wasim.
Talking to Khaleej Times in an exclusive chat just before he addressed a question answer session at 'Meet the King of the Cricket Legend Wasim Akram' at SIBF, he said, "It's amazing and heartening to see kids here because the culture of reading has changed so much due to the arrival of the Internet."
His love for books developed as a child at the age of four or five. "I used to borrow four aanaas (cents) from my mother and buy detective novels and whatever I could lay my hands on. Nowadays, it is so difficult to read online because of the speed at which information is thrown at you. So it is indeed heartening to see kids buying books at this fair," he said.
Mentioning reading habits in his kids Wasim said that his elder son, 16, still had a habit of reading which was nurtured by his late mother. "The younger one, however, is a kid of this generation and he is more of an Internet child," he said laughing.
He also said that arranging a bookfair at this level was a huge thing. "I can see people from all walks of life here, speaking different languages and even the books available are in many different languages which is a great thing," he said.
Mentioning his plans to write another autobiography following his earlier one that was out in 1998 'Wasim: The Autobiography of Wasim Akram, he said that plans were on.
Addressing a question answer session later, Wasim described his journey into cricket at the age of 17 and a half years as a student. "I was just very lucky to be picked since I used to play club cricket," he said adding that as a child he used to play cricket on the streets and buy magazines so that he could know about the players.
"My idols were Zaheer Abbas and Imran Khan and I used to read whatever I could find on about them," said Wasim who has played for Pakistan for 20 years.
"The first time I met Imran Khan he knew my name and I was in so much awe of meeting my idol that I asked him how he knew my name," said Wasim, recalling his first meeting with the then captain of Pakistan Cricket team.
Mentioning the late Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Wasim said that only his songs used to play in the changing rooms during the 1992 World Cup which Pakistan. "Imran was a huge fan of Nusrat sahib and that's how we all fell in love with his qawwalis and songs," he added.
Wasim later fielded questions from the audience and asked Pakistanis to develop a sportsmanship spirit. "When two teams are playing, one loses and one wins. We have to developed a sportsman spirit and teach our kids the same," he said.
asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com
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