Former Pakistan seamer Wasim Akram recently shared a hilarious incident on his county stint where ex-cricketer Michael Watkinson played a prank on him. Akram said that during the first month of that stint, he used to carry a bag that felt increasingly heavy. One day, when he checked he found a big brick in it.
“Remember those days when we used to have those cricket bags. coffins. We used to call them coffins without the wheels. Now you can carry it or you have people carry it for you. In County cricket we used to carry our kitbags ourselves. And I was very young, 21 years old and didn’t know how to wash my old clothes. You are a bit spoiled in Pakistan. You mom does it for you,” Akram said on the Stick to Cricket podcast.
“And for the first month, I was carrying my bag and it was so heavy. Usually when you play, you just pick up the top things, change and get on with the game. Leicester ground, you carry your bag from the parking, little stairs go up and after a month, there was a freaking massive brick in my kit bag. I had carried it for a month. And it was Michael Watkinson who did that. I found out it was Mike and then I cut his socks,” he added.
Watch the video here:
‘I’d been carrying a massive brick around for a month’ 🧱
Wasim Akram recalls some pranks in his early cricket days 😂 pic.twitter.com/9J7cx5F2En
— Stick to Cricket (@StickToCricket) August 25, 2025
Battle with diabetes
In the same podcast, the Pakistan legend had also revealed how he found out that he was diabetic.
“I got diagnosed in 1997. I started losing weight, my vision was a bit blurred, I was thirsty all the time, I was urinating a lot and my dad came up to me and said have you blood sugar test. I was like what the heck is blood sugar? Those days in the 90s, there was no awareness of diabetes at all,” he said.
“And I then went and had my blood test done. If it’s usually you are diabetes normal like you guys, it’s 100 or 110. Mine was 450. So I obviously went to the specialist and he said you have to be on insulin straight away. I said what the heck is insulin? Then in those days, there weren’t these disposable pens like we have now. Those days you have to have certain vials with your bottles with you and big syringes on the side. So it was tough,” he added.