Wasim Akram has admitted that he became addicted to cocaine after he retired from international cricket but quit following the death of his first wife.
The former Pakistan captain revealed that the problem developed when he was travelling frequently for media and commercial appearances while his late wife Huma was in Manchester or Lahore with their young sons.
”I liked to indulge myself; I liked to party,” he wrote in his autobiography Sultan: A Memoir, which is published next month.
“The culture of fame in south Asia is all consuming, seductive and corrupting. You can go to 10 parties a night. It took its toll on me. I developed a dependence on cocaine.”
In an interview with The Times, Akram admitted that he was unsure how people would react to the revelation but that he had written the book for his three children “just to put my side of the story”.