Pakistan may have come out decidedly second-best to Australia in the recent Tri-Nations tournament in Nairobi, but confidence in the camp is high heading into the ICC Champions Trophy. They looked relaxed and ready to rumble when they met the media this morning at the team hotel. Waqar Younis, who now wears the mantle of a leader with ease, thought the pressure would be on Sri Lanka ahead of the clash between the two teams in the tournament opener on September 12. According to him, the change in the tournament format (from direct knockout) made very little difference. "If you look at the groups, each one has a team that is weak when compared to the other two," he said, implying in none-too-subtle terms that the match on Thursday was a winner-takes-all affair.

He also shot down suggestions that players carrying injuries would hamper the Pakistan cause. "Tell me which top team does not carry injuries. There is so much cricket being played and every team has the same problem."

In another corner of the Gregory Hall at the Taj Samudra, Saeed Anwar held forth patiently and at length about the personal difficulties that have pushed him to the verge of retirement. The loss of his daughter made him tap into the religious side of his being, and he says it has allowed him to relate more to people from every walk of life, "rich man or poor man". He sets himself no long-term goals, preferring instead to take it a series at a time. "Over a period of seven months, we will be home only for 20 days. It's very hard for my wife, now that she no longer has the little girl," he tells you. Graham Thorpe, for one, could relate to that.

Just up the table from the soft-spoken Anwar, Shoaib Akhtar basks in the spotlight. He waxes – though not too eloquently – about his longer hair ("my hairdresser is at home, so I need to get there to have it fixed"), breaking the 100mph barrier ("I know I did it, it's up to the authorities to ratify it. I know I can go even faster") and the philosophy of teamwork ("hey, I'm not going to bowl slow, but the main aim is to take wickets for the side").

Once Shoaib departs, the cameras and dictaphones are trained on Wasim Akram, who handles them with the same aplomb with which he took care of England in the 1992 World Cup final. Wasim says the World Cup, in less than six months' time, will almost certainly mark the end of his road. He laughs when asked about his post-retirement plans. "Good question," he says. "I have no idea ... I will just sleep a lot a lot and spend more time with my family. My kids are five and two and they miss me."

When quizzed about Pakistan's consistently inconsistent performances, he smiles and tells you, "It's been that way for 50 years and I don't think it will change. It's part of the national character almost. Nowadays, with so many games being played, you can take it for granted that you will lose a few." He has no plans to coach ("It involves getting up early and making detailed plans and I'm not the type") or get into administration – not in the immediate future anyway – though he says he would love to give something back to "a sport that has given me everything".

"When I look back over the 17 years," Akram says, "I've made a million mistakes, but I wouldn't change that. It's been a roller-coaster ride that I've enjoyed every minute of." And what of the price that he has had to pay at times, with his name besmirched in some circles in the wake of the match-fixing scandal? "I'd still say it was worth it, because cricket has given me so much."

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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