by Abdul Habib
10th August 2010

Several days ago, Mohammad Irfan confirmed to me that he'd been signed by the Kolkata Knight Riders. For most people, who have been following the Irfan story, this will come out of the blue but the story began in the middle of June when Irfan was called up to the pre-England training camp for the Pakistan team.

Whilst at the camp Irfan was spotted by Pakistani fast bowling legend Wasim Akram. Everyone knows that Wasim has an eye for talent because he was the one who recommended Sohail Tanvir and Mohammad Aamer to be selected for Pakistan. The only question was what would Wasim think of Irfan?

Wasim began walking over to Irfan who was sure that Wasim was on his way to talk to someone else but Wasim went straight to Irfan.

"Since I'm a left-armer myself, Wasim has always been my hero. I couldn't believe it when he came up to me and began to praise me. It felt quite surreal, almost dreamlike but luckily for me it was really happening." Irfan recalled to Cricistan.com.

Wasim then gave Irfan a little bit of advice and asked him to come and see him later on that day. When Irfan met Wasim, he couldn't believe that Wasim wanted him to try out for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

"At first Wasim bhai gave me some advice about my game telling me that he thought I could improve on a few things. But then he suddenly told me that he wanted me to try out for the Kolkata Knight Riders, he didn't promise anything. He just said that he thought I was good enough and if I impressed in the trials then I would be in with a good chance of getting signed by Kolkata" Irfan told Cricistan.com

Irfan was then invited to a tour of Sri Lanka with Kolkata.

"A few weeks later I was told that I would be joining KKR for a tour of Sri Lanka. It was a low key tour where we would play some games against club sides and it would take place between 25th July and 5th August. That was important because it meant that it wouldn't interfere with my preparations for the Pakistan A tour."

"When I arrived in Sri Lanka I had a 45 minute wait at the airport because they didn't recognise me, I mean come on yaar how many 7 foot guys were they waiting for? I'm just kidding, I didn't mind waiting. Everyone at KKR was very good to me and I had a great time on the tour. None of the standard kits fitted me so they had to do some stitching for me." Irfan said to Cricistan.com

During the tour Irfan took a lot of wickets and the KKR team were impressed with his skills and his attitude.

"I took a lot of wickets during the tour including 3/10 in 5 overs against Moors Sports Club and 4/11 against CC club. But I'm particularly proud of my 39 runs from 20 balls with 3 huge sixes." remembered Irfan.

It seems that Kolkata were really impressed with Irfan's skills because they didn't waste any time in signing him up just in case Pakistani players are allowed to play in the next edition of IPL. Irfan said that he was really touched that Wasim bhai had such faith in him.

"I haven't met Wasim bhai very often but the few times we have met, I will always remember. Everyone dreams of meeting their hero but I can't believe that not only did I meet him but that he praised me and helped me out like this." Irfan told Cricistan.com

Irfan only returned from Sri Lanka on the 5th of August but he's already looking forward to returning there with Pakistan A in a few weeks time! Best of luck to Irfan from myself and everyone here at Cricistan.