KARACHI: Pakistan cricket has always been blessed with fine wicket-keepers. Be it Wasim Bari, Saleem Yousuf, Rashid Latif, Moin Khan, Adnan Akmal or Sarfraz Ahmed, they have all proved their mettle from time to time. But Kamran Akmal has surpassed most of them when it comes to batting.

But Kamran’s glovework has had its ups and downs so much over the years that the selectors have lost patience with their man after the ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh last year.

Now it is the effervescent figure of Sarfraz who is donning the gloves in all three formats and is also vice-captain of ODI and T20 teams with the equally enthusiastic Mohammad Rizwan his understudy in the current scenario.

Now mainly confined to playing on the domestic circuit — he is skipper of National Bank team — and some of the popular T20 leagues in other countries, the 33-year-old Kamran, the eldest of the three Akmal brothers having represented Pakistan, has not given up on resurrecting an in-and-out chequered international career, albeit as batsman.

“It would be totally unwarranted on my part to expect Sarfraz making way just like that. He has worked extremely hard to earn international cap and deserves to be the first-choice wicket-keeper. It [wicket-keeping] is never an easy job and I think Sarfraz has done reasonably well in my opinion,” Kamran told Dawn in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

“The hardest part is that at a given time only one wicket-keeper plays in the eleven. Now my aim is to find my way back as batsman since I feel I’m still good enough to play international cricket.”

Kamran’s international debut occurred in unexpected circumstances on his first tour with the national side when he went as Rashid Latif’s understudy to Zimbabwe and South Africa in 2002-03.

“When Rashid pulled out with a neck injury in the morning of the first Test against Zimbabwe at Harare, everything happened very quickly because I wasn’t hoping to be called up but still the team management instructed me to get ready for the match and there I was making my Test debut! Pakistan batted first and I was bowled by [spinner] Ray Price for a duck,” Kamran recalled.

“And when we went in to the field on the second day, Mohammad Sami got the first wicket of the Zimbabwe innings, giving me my first catch in international cricket. Thereafter, there was no looking back and I played in all four Tests on those two tours since Rashid had not recovered and announced retirement from Test cricket.”

Kamran recalled how he used to watch Rashid, who he considered as his mentor.

“I was attending an U-15 national camp at the National Stadium and was very keen to see my hero in action. While the camp was on, I was very lucky to see a domestic one-dayer in which Rashid was playing.

“When Rashid was keeping something happened to me because I sat very close to the boundary line and never budged an inch as long as my childhood hero was on the field! That’s how I saw him for the first time in action.”

Kamran rated Inzamam-ul-Haq as the best Pakistan captain he played under, while adding Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik and Shoaib Akhtar inspired him a lot when he played alongside them.

“Inzamam was easily the best captain I played with. He was not only supportive but always stood by me and backed me to the hilt. I also enjoyed the company of Yousuf, Younis, Malik and Shoaib Akhtar. All of them played big part in the development of my Pakistan career and were always ready to encourage me whenever I felt down,” Kamran said.

“Another person to inspire me greatly was Bob Woolmer who was the Pakistan coach when I was back in the team in 2004. He was a caring man who always had time for us.

“How can I forget Woolmer’s calming words when the selectors wanted to axe me from the 2004-05 tour of Australia since I was not doing well and yet both he and Inzamam told me that I would play in a tri-series fixture. That’s why I always rate 105 I scored against the West Indies at Brisbane [in that tri-series event] as one of my best centuries.

“In Test cricket, the finest innings of my career was probably 113 against India in Karachi. It was a series-decider and day one, Pakistan lost three wickets in the opening over [Irfan Pathan dismissing Salman Butt Younis and Yousuf to complete a hat-trick] and lost three more with the total on 39. There was enormous pressure on us but Abdul Razzaq and I not only got our team out of trouble but we won the Test and the series as well,” Kamran recollected.

“The hundred [109] against India at Mohali in 2005 was another special knock. There too Razzaq played a big part to save the Test.”

When asked whether he had any regret in life, Kamran, who has appeared in 53 Tests, 154 ODIs and 54 T20 Internationals, was philosophical.

“Not really. Because what I have achieved as professional cricketer is something I couldn’t have dreamt of. When I started playing my family was struggling to make both ends meet. There were times when we were fortunate to eat twice a day, let alone thrice. So I’m very fortunate that Allah has been extremely kind to us in every respect.”

Kamran’s 208 Test dismissals are only second to Wasim Bari (228 in 81 matches) among Pakistan wicket-keepers, while his 187 ODI victims are surpassed by just Moin Khan (287) and Rashid Latif (220).

But many are unaware that Kamran holds Pakistan’s first-class wicket-keeping record of most catches (726 in 208 matches) and is only second to Bari in overall dismissals (828 in 286 matches, 684 catches and 144 stumpings) in first-class cricket by any Pakistani.

“Please don’t compare any of us with Bari. He is a legend not only of Pakistan but the entire cricketing world when it comes to wicket-keeping since he was one of the finest,” Kamran concluded.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2015