"Today's batsmen are fortunate not to face the likes of Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and me"- Shoaib Akhtar
Shoaib Akhtar believes the current group of batters are lucky as they have not faced the likes of Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Shane Warne and himself in the international arena.
In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda, former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar spoke at length on various topics. He was asked to give his views on how much the sport of cricket had evolved over the last few years.
Akhtar opined that only the batting shots had evolved but there was no improvement in the quality of the game. He felt the majority of the current batters would fail to tackle the spin of Shane Warne and the pace and swing of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and himself.
"The game of cricket has not evolved. The shots have evolved, but the quality of the game has deteriorated in the last 10 years. Today's batsmen are fortunate not to face the likes of Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and me," replied Shoaib Akhtar.
Shoaib Akhtar feels the viewership of cricket has reduced
Shoaib Akhtar also spoke about how the fan following of cricket has gradually decreased over the years. He pointed out that the big matches of the ICC events drew big numbers in terms of viewership, but they were not consistent. The 45-year-old tried to explain the reason behind the decline and said there were no 'characters' left in the sport now.
"The deterioration has happened. The viewership of the game has not increased but it has come down because the characters of the game have gone. People are saying there's more viewership, but how is there more viewership? There's no viewership for Test matches. 600 million might have watched the Champions Trophy match, but that was a one-off," Shoaib Akhtar concluded.