Wasim Akram, the former captain of Pakistan’s cricket team, recently spoke back on an unforgettable experience he had while serving as coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
During a training session, Akram, who was the bowling coach for KKR from 2010 to 2016, remembered with fondness a time he bowled to a naive and youthful Sanju Samson.
In retrospect, Akram narrated, “I believe this incident occurred in 2010.” In 2010, KKR had a black kit, as I recall. In 2011, they went purple. Thus, prior to the IPL, we planned a camp. Not in Eden Gardens, but somewhere else. As a result, not many bowlers were available for the camp. To bat came Sanju Samson. That was a shy boy, he was. He was a very good wicketkeeper and tended to stay silent. Then, in a conversation on Sportskeeda, he also came to bat.
Taking advantage of the shortage of bowlers during the practise session, Akram was able to demonstrate his abilities against Samson, who is 16 years old.
“So, I hope Sanju remembers that I snatched the ball. Sanju is going to recall this. I used a few of outswingers to beat him. That was also a young age for me. I gave him an inswinger on the third delivery, which rattled his stumps. “So I went and did like this,” he continued, giving a final finger swing as a sign of his departure.
Even in their short exchange, Wasim Akram could tell Samson had talent.
“He didn’t have an opportunity at that point, but I thought he had what it took to be a strong player in the future. He didn’t say anything. He was a small child. You feel more pressure when you’re around famous people. Even though I didn’t spend much time with him, I had the impression that he had the potential to be a terrific player,” he said.
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