"Sami is a mentally weak athlete and he can't take pressure. Efforts were made to make Sami into the Karachi Express. He was constantly told that your competition is with Akhtar for a place in the team," the Daily Times quoted Akhtar, as saying.
"I played a lot with Sami and my observation is he tried to compete hard and lost discipline in bowling. When we bowled together we could put a lot of pressure on the batsmen and in such circumstances he bowled well," Akhtar said.
The former pacer said luck also plays a big role in any cricketer's career.
"Sami was an unlucky bowler as well many times straight forward catches were dropped off his bowling while in some instances umpires didn't give decisions in his favour," he said.
Akhtar said he believed that compared to Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, Sami was a mentally weak bowler.
"He has been playing for 11 years but if you tick him off once he loses focus and comes under pressure. He has the ability and I wish he does well now but for this he has to be assigned a role in the team and pressure must be put on him to perform as a frontline strike bowler," Akhtar was quoted, as saying.
The national selectors and team management have come under criticism for retaining Sami in the Twenty20 squad announced for the upcoming Australia series and the T20 World Cup, after he failed to make an impact on the Sri Lanka tour.
Sami's selection was a debatable one, with critics pointing to his abysmal Test record of 85 wickets in 36 matches at an average of 56. His performances in ODIs and T20 matches is better since he has captured 121 wickets in 85 matches at an average of 28 and 10 wickets at 14 in five T20 games, the paper said.
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