Tour of England 1996                Captain: Wasim Akram

(June - September 1996)

This trip was the first visit to England since the fractious 1992 tour. Yawar Saeed and captain Wasim Akram were praised for improving relations between Pakistan and English cricket. Helpfully, England were captained by Wasim’s Lancashire colleague and friend, Mike Atherton.

As before when appointed captain, Wasim Akram’s own playing performance dipped slightly but he did reach 300 Test wickets at The Oval. The Pakistan side was far stronger than England’s, especially in bowling. Mushtaq (17 wickets), Waqar (16) and Wasim (11), aided by five century-makers, all helped Pakistan to a 2–0 victory.

In the second Test match at Headingley, 120 people were ejected from the ground and 11 arrested after allegedly racist disturbances.

Other Pakistan Tours

Previous tour

Australia 1995-96

Next tour

Sri Lanka 1996-97

Next tour of England

2001

Members of the Test tour party (17)

Opening batsmen   Aamer Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Shadab Kabir, Shahid Anwar.

Middle-order batsmen  Inzamamul Haq, Ijaz Ahmed, Asif Mujitaba, Saleem Malik

Wicket-keepers  Moin Khan, Rashid Latif

Spin bowlers  Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq

Fast bowlers  Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Ata-ur-Rehman, Shahid Nazir, Mohammad Akram.

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

 (25 July 1996)   25 yrs 8 months.

ODI  Played in ODI series

Test Appearances before tour

Saleem Malik 87,  Wasim Akram 67,  Waqar Younis 38,  Aamer Sohail 30,  Inzamamul Haq 30,   Ijaz Ahmed 27,  Asif Mujitaba 21,  Mushtaq Ahmed 21,  Moin Khan 18, Rashid Latif 18,  Saeed Anwar 14,  Ata ur Rehman 11,  Saqlain Mushtaq 4, Mohammad Akram 4,  Shadab Kabir 0,  Shahid Anwar 0,  Shahid Nazir 0.

Team Officials

Selectors

Dr Zafar Altaf (chairman), Naushad Ali, Salahuddin with Wasim Akram (co-opted) formed the panel.

Selection

Trials : 41 players were invited to the trials.

Wasim Akram was chosen to captain the tour party on 5 May.

Team announced  21 May 1996.

There were 9 reserves, including Aaqib Javed and Basit Ali.  The manager’s name was announced after 22 May, Intikhab Alam being dropped.

Training Camp : at Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore, from 29 May. Ian Chappell was asked to help prepare the team but could not do so and Wasim Akram led the practices.

Travel

Assembled at Lahore on evening of 16 June and flew to Amsterdam, arriving at 5am on 17 June.

Played two one-day matches in Holland (19/20 June) before flying in to Birmingham from The Hague on 21 June. After 3 days of practice at Edgbaston, travelled to London by team coach on 24 June for practice at Lord's.

On-tour selection

Reinforcements

None.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Test appearances on tour

3 -    Ijaz Ahmed,  Inzamamul Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed,  Saeed Anwar,  Saleem Malik,  Waqar Younis,  Wasim Akram.

2 -    Aamer Sohail,  Asif Mujitaba,  Ata-ur-Rehman,  Moin Khan,  Shadab Kabir.

1 -    Mohammad Akram,  Rashid Latif.

0 -    Saqlain Mushtaq,  Shahid Anwar,  Shahid Nazir.

Highlights

•   Mushtaq Ahmed (5-57), bowling round the wicket, brought about an England collapse, losing 7 wickets for 18 runs in an hour at Lord’s.

•   Pakistan won its fifth consecutive series against England since 1983-84.

Tour Summary

Return to Pakistan

On 3 September 1996 flew from London to Islamabad Airport. The Karachi players flew from London to Karachi on 5 September.

On 10 September they flew out again for Toronto, to play the Sahara Friendship Cup against India .

Finances

Written accounts of the tour

"The Hunt for Peace"  by Dr Kim H.Baloch