“I was addicted to cocaine post-retirement”, reveals Wasim Akram
In his upcoming autobiography titled “Sultan: A Memoir”, king of swing Wasim Akram revealed that his habitual use of cocaine developed post-retirement.
Wasim Akram is known as Pakistan’s top wicket-taker in both Test and ODI cricket. After 18 years of international career, Akram got retired in 2003 but continued to travel the world on commentary and coaching assignments.
In his upcoming memoir, he claims that his cocaine addiction started after he retired because he began to want “a substitute for the adrenaline rush of competition,” and it ended in 2009 when his first wife Huma passed away.
A candid portrait of Akram’s slide into addiction is painted in extracts from his book that were published in The Times along with an interview.
“I liked to indulge myself; I liked to party,” he writes. “The culture of fame in south Asia is all consuming, seductive and corrupting. You can go to ten parties a night, and some do. And it took its toll on me. My devices turned into vices”.
“Worst of all, I developed a dependence on cocaine. It started innocuously enough when I was offered a line at a party in England; my use grew steadily more serious, to the point that I felt I needed it to function.
“It made me volatile. It made me deceptive. Huma, I know, was often lonely in this time . . . she would talk of her desire to move to Karachi, to be nearer her parents and siblings. I was reluctant. Why? Partly because I liked going to Karachi on my own, pretending it was work when it was actually about partying, often for days at a time”.
“Huma eventually found me out, discovering a packet of cocaine in my wallet . . . ‘You need help.’ I agreed. It was getting out of hand. I couldn’t control it. One line would become two, two would become four; four would become a gram, a gram would become two. I could not sleep. I could not eat. I grew inattentive to my diabetes, which caused me headaches and mood swings. Like a lot of addicts, part of me welcomed discovery: the secrecy had been exhausting.”
In his upcoming book, Wasim Akram also talked about going to rehab to let go of his cocaine addiction but things didn’t work out in his favor.
Following his wife Huma’s death in October 2009 from the uncommon fungus mucormycosis, he stopped taking cocaine. “Huma’s last selfless, unconscious act was curing me of my drug problem. That way of life was over, and I have never looked back.”
Since then, Akram has had a second marriage and has two kids from the first and a daughter from the second. He stated that he had written his book for his children during an interview with The Times.
“I’m a bit anxious about the book,” he said, “but I think once it is out, I’ll be kind of over it. I’m anxious because at my age, I’m 56 and I’ve been diabetic for 25 years, it is just stress, you know . . . it was tough to revisit all the things. I’ve done it for my two boys, who are 25 and 21, and my seven-year-old daughter, just to put my side of the story”.
