Wasim Akram (Punjabi: وسیم اکرم; born 3 June 1966) is a former Pakistani cricketer. He is a left arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman who represented the Pakistan national cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International (ODI) matches.

Akram is regarded as one of the best fast bowlers in the history of cricket. He holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket with 881 and is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets with 502. He is considered to be one of the founders and perhaps the finest exponent of reverse swing bowling.

He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002 Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glen McGrath and Muralitharan. Wasim has taken 23 4-wicket hauls in ODI in 356 matches he played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He is the current bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders.

Michael Jonathon Slater (born 21 February 1970) is a former Australian cricketer who played in 74 Tests and 42 ODIs for the Australian cricket team from 1993 to 2001. He subsequently became a cricket commentator.

The son of Peter and Carole, Slater was born in the New South Wales rural city Wagga Wagga on 21 February 1970 after his parents and two elder siblings (Julian and Tracey) had emigrated from the north-eastern coast of England in 1966. They originally migrated to Launceston, Tasmania, Australia by boat, after deciding against moving to Canada. In Launceston, Slater's father taught agriculture and science at high school, as he had done since graduating from college. After three years in Launceston, the Slaters moved to Wagga Wagga, and Peter became a lecturer in agriculture at what is now known as the Charles Sturt University. Slater lived in Wagga Wagga for his entire childhood, eventually leaving with only fond memories. He later wrote: "Wagga Wagga was a great place to grow up, for many reasons. It was a good size — it had a population of around 50,000 when we moved there — and it was in the country, with a great Australian climate. My family was always involved in sport, so from an early age it just seemed natural for me to play any game that was on offer."

Waqar Younis Maitla (Punjabi: وقار یونس, born 16 November 1971) is a former Pakistani right arm fast bowler in cricket and widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. As of 2012, he holds the record for the youngest Pakistani Test captain and the third youngest Test captain in history (22 years 15 days). He played 87 Tests and 262 One Day Internationals (ODIs) matches for Pakistan during his international cricket career from1989 to 2003.

Younis' trademark was his ability to reverse swing a cricket ball at high speed. He took 373 Test wickets and 416 One Day International wickets during his career. Together with bowling partner Wasim Akram, he formed one of the subcontinent's most feared bowling attacks. He is considered to be the best exponent of the swing bowling delivery. Younis has the best strike rate for any bowler with over 350 Test wickets. He worked as a bowling coach with the national side from 2006 to 2007. Waqar was appointed as the coach of the Pakistan cricket team on 3 March 2010. He resigned as Pakistan's Cricket Coach on 19 August 2011 citing personal reasons.

Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar  pronunciation (help·info) (Marathi: सुनील मनोहर गावसकर) (born 10 July 1949) is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any batsman. He held the record of 34 Test centuries for almost two decades before it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in December 2005.

Gavaskar was widely admired for his technique against fast bowling, with a particularly high average of 65.45 against the West Indies, who possessed a four-pronged fast bowling attack regarded as the most vicious in Test history. His captaincy of the Indian team, however, was less successful. The team at one stage went 31 Test matches without a victory. There were incidents like crowd displeasure at Eden Gardens in Calcutta leading to multiple matches being disrupted, in response to the poor performance of the Indian team. Turbulent performances of the team led to multiple exchanges of captaincy between Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, with one of Gavaskar's sackings coming just six months before Kapil led India to victory at the 1983 Cricket World Cup.

Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani (Urdu: سید ظہیر عباس کرمانی) (born 24 July 1947, Sialkot), popularly known as Zaheer Abbas, is a former Pakistani cricketer, regarded as one of the finest batsman produced by that country. He is widely known as the "Asian Bradman", a reference to former Australian great Sir Donald Bradman. He is among few professional cricketers who used to wear spectacles. In 1982/1983, he became the first batsman to score three consecutive centuries in one-day internationals.

Abbas made his Test match debut in 1969, and in his second Test he scored 274 against England, still the fourth ever highest score by a Pakistani batsman. This was the first of four double-centuries Abbas made; only ten men have scored more. The last of his four Test double-centuries was an innings of 215 against India in 1983, the first of three centuries in consecutive Tests, and his hundredth first-class century; Abbas and Geoffrey Boycott are the only two batsmen to have scored their hundredth first-class century in a Test match.