'I was hurting my late wife a lot'- Wasim Akram shares His 'cocaine addiction' revelation experience in Pakistan

Wasim Akram, who opened up about his post-retirement cocaine addiction in his autobiography Sultan: A Memoir, has now revealed that he was forced to stay in a rehab facility in Pakistan for two and a half months. After retiring from international cricket, the former Pakistan captain and the country's leading wicket-taker in both ODIs and Tests developed a cocaine addiction while in England.

The legendary Pakistan fast bowler said he couldn't socialise without the drug, and when his first wife Huma discovered his addiction, she suggested he go to a rehab centre, but that didn't work out.

"In England, somebody at a party said 'you wanna try it?' I was retired, I said ‘yeah. Then one line became a gram. I came back to Pakistan. Nobody knew what it was but it was available. I realised, I couldn't function without it, which means I couldn't socialise without it. It got 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's a rehab, you can go there. I said alright I will go there for a month but they kept me there for two and a half months against my will. Apparently, that is illegal in the world but not in Pakistan. That didn't help me. When I came out, a rebellion came into me. It's my money, I stayed in that horrible place against my will," Akram said in The Grade Cricketer podcast.

It was very very tough: Wasim Akram

The 1992 World Cup winner had a very different perspective on rehab centres, but what he found in Pakistan was 'horrible'. "In western movies, even in Australia you see rehabs have lovely big lawns, people give lectures, you go to gym. But I went to a place (in Pakistan) with a corridor and eight rooms, that's it. It was very very tough. It was a horrible time," he added.

Akram also discussed how his life changed after his wife died and he was left to care for his two young sons. Then a tragedy happened, my wife passed away. I knew I was on the wrong path, I wanted to get out of it. I had two young boys. In Western culture, a dad is involved fifty-fifty (with the mother). You wake up in the morning, drop your child to the school, pick them up, and change clothes. In our culture, as a dad, we never do that. It's the wife's turn. Our job is to go out and raise funds. I was lost for two years. I never knew where I had to buy clothes for them, I didn't know what they ate, I had to go to every class, and attend parent-teacher meetings, I had to be friendly with their friends' parents. But I must say, every parent around my kids helped a lot.

When asked for advice to the younger generation on how to avoid making the wrong decisions, Akram said they should pick their friends carefully. "My advice to the young generation is to choose your company carefully. If your company is like that then you are bound to go the wrong way and very few manage to come out of that path. Make sure your friends have a good work ethic."