The speculation about Wasim Akram being asked to take over as bowling coach of the Indian cricket team may have ended, but skipper Sourav Ganguly is still looking to the Pakistani great for tips for his pacemen.
While conceding that Akram would have been a "sensitive selection", Ganguly hoped the former world record holder would help out the young left-arm pace brigade of Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and rookie Irfan Pathan, Jr.
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Akram, who has retired from international cricket, will be in Australia to do commentary on the four-Test series for a television channel.
Ganguly said, "I rate Akram as the best left-arm paceman I have ever seen. I know he would be around with a television network and hopefully he can offer some tips. He would be useful also because we have quite a few left-arm pacemen in our squad.
"Our boys in the past too have sought him out for advice."
On the selection bribery scandal that is hogging the headlines in newspapers back home, Ganguly said he still found the allegation that Maharashtra middle-order batsman Abhijit Kale had offered Rs 20 lakh [appxoximately US $44,150] to selectors for a berth in the national side hard to believe.
"Frankly, I haven't quite followed the developments on the [bribery] issue. But I really don't think it happens. In my experience, I have never seen it happen at the India level, but I can't say about the 'A' side selections."
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