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Former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram feels that India and Pakistan taking on each other on the sports field would get ready players from both the sides to handle pressure.
Akram, who was taking part in a panel conversation along with ex-Indian hockey captain, Dhanraj Pillay, also slam colleague and fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar for his pained comments in his autobiography, "Controversially Yours", next to top Indian batsmen, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.
Akram, who represent his country in 104 Tests and 356 ODIs between 1985 and 2003, wanted India and Pakistan to connect in sports at all levels.
"We should have usual contests in all sports from the under-16, under-19 levels. India-Pakistan games are pressure games. Once a player knows how to grip the force in these matches, he can play next to all other teams," said the 45-year-old Akram.
About Akhtar's remark on Tendulkar and Dravid, Akram joke that the former Pakistani pacer was missing in brains.
"Batsmen of the calibre of Tendulkar and Dravid are not frightened of fast bowlers. At times they may just block a bowler like me to protect their wickets," he said.
Asked about the most unforgettable moments in his cricket career, Akram, one of the best-ever left-arm fast bowlers in the history of the game, singled out three instances.
"Our World Cup victory in 1992 (under Imran Khan), and the Test series victory over (hosts) India in 1987 (Pakistan's maiden one) and our wins in India in 1999," he said.
Pakistan has beaten India at Chennai before the hosts avenge the defeat in Delhi in the two-Test rubber. In another Test right away afterwards in Kolkata, part of the now obsolete Asian Test Championship, the visitors defeated the home team.
Akram singled out the irresistible loss in the World Cup final of 1999 to Australia, in which he led his country, as his most unmemorable moment.
Asked concerning the top batsmen he had bowled to, the Lahore-born Akram said there were quite a few.
"In the start, there was (India's) Sunil Gavaskar.
"Later, there were Allan Border, Mark Taylor, the Waugh brothers (all Australians) and then (West Indian) Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and England's Alec Stewart, who I found difficult to bowl to," he said.
Akram also said that over the last four or five years, the Pakistan cricket team lacked "a proper role model".
"They had Shoaib as one," he remarked in a jocular vein.
Akram, a diabetic, said he was at first worried when he was diagnosed with the disease in 1987 but then after a two-month break to take treatment, came back and took over 250 wickets each in both Tests and ODIs.
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