Highest wicket taker in World Cup salutes Wasim Akram

St Peters, Antigua, Apr 1 (UNI) Australian pace ace Glenn Mcgrath, after overtaking Wasim Akram as the highest wicket taker in the World Cup, paid rich tributes to the former Paksitani swing maestro referring to him as ''one of the greatest bowlers of all times.'' McGrath took three wickets in the match against Bangladesh yesterday to take his tally to 57 bettering Akram's record of 55 wickets.

''To me Wasim is one of the greatest bowlers of all time, a left-armer swinging both ways with the new ball,'' McGrath told media persons yesterday.

''He was so dangerous with the old ball. To go past him is something special, probably the other side of the coin is if you play long enough you are going to break records here and there,'' he said but added that to improve upon the record of the swing magician is simply fascinating.

''It is not easy to have such records especially in the World Cup and more so to erase the existing record set by great bowler like Akram,'' he said.

''Yes it feels great, this is my last World Cup and to end it with a record has special meaning,'' he said.

McGrath admitted that the Bangladesh batsmen had few other options but to go for big shots which cost them wickets.

''I guess they were always going to do that. There were only nine overs of power play, they had to come quite hard at us.

''I tried to adjust to the conditions to be prepared when blokes come down the wicket and adjust accordingly. Luckily for me I got enough in the right areas and the guys hung on to the catches.'' McGrath, who will retire from all cricket after the World Cup has taken more than 360 one-day wickets for his country and has the best World Cup analysis of seven for 15 against Namibia.

UNI