Wasim Akram details cocaine addiction in new book and how his late wife helped him overcome it

Sultan – A Memoir to shed light on the former cricketer's life candidly - on professional and personal front

Wasim Akram's explosive tell-all, Sultan – A Memoir to shed light on the former cricketer's life candidly - on the professional and personal front.  

While the former cricketer has spoken about the contents of his biography, in a recent interview with Times, Wasim shared how he detailed his addiction to cocaine as well. "I liked to indulge myself; I liked to party," he wrote in the book. "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."

He further penned, "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."

Talking about his late wife, Huma Wasim, the all-rounder shared, "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 working when it was actually about partying, often for days at a time."

Adding how Huma eventually found out, he revealed, "She discovered 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."

The cricketer added how he went into rehab and found the experience distressing. "The doctor was a complete con man, who worked primarily on manipulating families rather than treating patients, on separating relatives from money rather than users from drugs," he wrote, adding how he then ended up relapsing. 

"Try as I might, part of me was still smouldering inside about the indignity of what I'd been put through. My pride was hurt, and the lure of my lifestyle remained. I briefly contemplated divorce. I settled for heading to the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy where, out from under Huma's daily scrutiny, I started using again," Wasim shared. 

He further added the cocaine use ended after Huma's death in October 2009 from the rare fungal infection mucormycosis. "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."

Akram has since remarried and has three children - two sons from his first marriage and a daughter from his second. In his interview with The Times, he said he had written his book for his children.

"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," he commented.

According to details, the book is filled with startling revelations about Justice Malik Qayyum Commission report, match-fixing and cricket personalities. It will be translated in many languages, including Urdu. Wasim included memories from both his personal and professional lives in the autobiography. He has also mentioned former Pakistani cricketer and outgoing prime minister Imran Khan, and the 1992 World Cup win. The cricketer claimed to have revealed some previously unknown significant cricket-related incidents.

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