Former Pakistan bowler Mohammad Asif has made a startling claim that his country’s cricket team’s current pacers are much older than what their birth certificates show.

Asif, speaking as a guest on former teammate Kamran Akmal’s YouTube channel, was criticising the pacers for their “inability to bowl long spells” when he made the comment.

“They are so aged. It is written as 17-18 on paper, but they are actually 27-28 years old. That is why they don’t have the flexibility,” Asif said without taking any names.

To this comment, a smiling Akmal protested that the difference between official and real ages of the current Pakistan pacers cannot be that big. Asif then replied: “I may be 2-4 years off the mark, but it’s a fact.”

Asif went on to add: “They (Pak pacers) don’t have the flexibility to bowl 20-25 overs. They don’t know how to bend the body and they become stiff after a while. They are not able to stand on the field after bowling a 5-6 over spell.

“These kids do not have the knowledge. They don’t know how to keep the batsmen on the front foot, not give them a single and how to bowl on the wickets. When they try to bowl on the wickets, it goes down the leg side. They do not have the control.”

Among the current lot of Pakistan pacers doing duty in New Zealand, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah are aged 20 and 17, respectively. Mohammad Abbas is 30 and Faheem Ashraf is 26.

Age fraud has been one of the issues troubling Pakistan cricket for many years.

One of the finest seamers of his time, Asif’s blossoming career came to an end after he was banned by the ICC for five years for indulging in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal in England.

Hitting out at the current set-up in the Pakistan team, which lost the first Test in New Zealand by 101 runs, Asif said: “I feel it might have been 5-6 years since a (Pakistani) fast bowler took 10 wickets in a match. We used to salivate after seeing the pitches like the ones in New Zealand. There was no question of giving up the ball as a fast bowler.”

He also lambasted the current Pakistan coaches, Misbah-ul Haq, Younis Khan and Waqar Younis — all former captains.

“As a coach, if you ask me, Waqar Younis is a zero. He was great as a player. I have respect for him as a player. The three guys who are associated with the team currently — Younis bhai was a big player but he does not have any knowledge as a coach. Misbah is totally zero, as a player he was okay,” said Asif.