First published in 2015

Some sportsmen seem to take an almost instinctive dislike to one another. Their egos and lifestyles clash and a falling out is an accident waiting to happen. Take Kevin Pietersen and many of the England cricketers with whom he has played. The differences could be glossed over in the good times, but sooner or later the proverbial inevitably hits the fan and the newspapers have a field day. It’s like watching a series of cartoon characters falling out in public. There’s something almost too over the top about the ensuing slanging match to be believable. It’s theatre rather than war.

The most intense and disturbing sporting rivalries, however, are those that begin in mutual friendship and respect. Love, even. Then the falling out takes on a much darker hue. Take the rivalry between Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis that blighted Pakistan cricket throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s and arguably prevented their fractured national team from fulfilling its full potential.

Just by chance, I knew both players towards the beginning of their time as the most lethal strike force in Pakistan cricket, when I approached them with the idea of writing a book about them both – Wasim and Waqar: Imran’s Inheritors – that was published in the summer of 1992. It would be an exaggeration to say they were like long-lost blood brothers but they had a connection that ran a great deal deeper than just the coincidence of being two of the world’s finest fastest bowlers leading the same international attack.

These days Wasim and Waqar claim to have buried the hatchet and to be on good terms again. I hope so. They are both good men and it could be that they have decided to let bygones be bygones so they can relive the many great times they had together. It could also just be that now they are no longer the focus of so much PCB attention, the poison has had time to wear off.