“They kept me in rehab against my will. It’s illegal in the world but not in Pakistan’: Wasim Akram on cocaine addiction

Wasim Akram, who discussed his cocaine addiction after retirement in his autobiography, Sultan: A Memoir, has now revealed that he was kept in rehab in Pakistan for two and a half months against his will. Akram, a former Pakistani captain and the country’s leading wicket-taker in ODIs and away Tests, developed a cocaine addiction while in England after retiring from international cricket. The legendary Pakistani fast bowler said he couldn’t socialize without drugs at any time and when his first wife Huma found out about his addiction she suggested he go to a rehab center but it didn’t work out proceeded as planned.

“In England, someone at a party said ‘do you want to try?’ I was retired I said yeah Then a line became a gram I came back to Pakistan Nobody knew what it was but it was available I realized I don’t I couldn’t function without it, which means I couldn’t. I couldn’t socialize without it. It was getting worse and worse. My kids were young. I was hurting my late wife a lot. We would have arguments. She said I need help She said there is rehab you can go I said ok I will go there for a month but they tell me kept there for two and a half months against my will Apparently it’s illegal in the world but not in Pakistan It didn’t help me When I came out a rebellion came It’s my money , I stayed in this awful place against my will,” said Akram, arguably the greatest left-arm pace cricket ever, in The Quality Cricketer Podcast.

The 1992 World Cup winner said he had a very different idea of ​​rehab centers but what he got in Pakistan was “awful”.

“In western movies, even in Australia, you see rehabs with nice big lawns, people giving lectures, you go to the gym. But I went to a place (in Pakistan) with a hallway and eight rooms, that’s all. It was very, very difficult. It was a horrible time,” he added.

Akram also shared how his life changed when his wife passed away and he had to take care of his two young boys.

“Then a tragedy happened, my wife passed away. I knew I was on the wrong track, I wanted to get out of it. I had two young boys. In Western culture, a dad is involved half- half (with the mother) You wake up in the morning, drop your child off at school, pick them up and change their clothes. In our culture, as a father, we never do that. It’s the turn of the wife. Our job is to go out and raise funds. I was lost for two years. I never knew where I was to buy them clothes. I didn’t know what they ate, I had to go every class and attend parent-teacher meetings. I had to be friendly with their friends’ parents, but I have to say that all the parents around my children were very helpful to me.

“Then I moved to Karachi as my in-laws were there, I stayed in a one-room apartment and found a new school for the children. After three or four years, my current wife , who I met in Melbourne, took over but those two or three years in between were very difficult,” added the legendary cricketer.

When asked to give advice to the younger generation so that they don’t take the wrong path, Akram said one should choose one’s friends carefully.

“My advice to the younger generation is to choose your business carefully. If your business is like this, you are bound to go the wrong way and very few manage to get out of this way. Make sure your friends have good ethics of work.”