Mohammad Irfan

Pakistani left arm fast bowler Mohammed Irfan is the latest addition to the star studded Indian Premier League contingent as he recently reached at an agreement with the Kolkata Knight Riders, and would star in their team for the 2011 season. The lanky 28 year old from Pakistan towering over seven feet was recommended by Kolkata’s bowling coach Wasim Akram, after the former ‘sultan of swing’ was impressed by his show at the domestic level.

On suggestion from Akram, the rookie bowler participated in a practice session with the Kolkata franchisee at Sri Lanka and impressed them with his raw pace and his skill of extracting bounce and swing even from the dead rubbers at Lanka.

Irfan’s story of rise at top International Cricket level is a unique one. Coming from a small town in Pakistan called Gaggu Mandi, the 28 year old giant of a player was a worker at a plastic pipe factory in there. A regular at his club in his native place his name was pushed forth to former Pakistani speedster Aaqib Jaaved, who put him under his training camp and introduced the raw pacer to the nuances of swing and line- length. Impressed by his show Aaqib made sure his ward got further chances to prove his mettle and made him debut for Khan Research Labs. Irfan impressed in his second outing taking nine wickets and went on to take 43 wickets in the season.

Irfan came close to earning his international call when he was selected by skipper Shahid Afridi and Coach Waqar Younis for the 2010 World T20 but was excluded from the team at the last moment when PCB chief Ijaz Butt refused to include him in the team on grounds of violation of norms.

As Irfan is yet to feature in any International outing the mystery speedster wouldn’t need to go through the auction process and can be signed directly by the Franchisee. Irfan and his franchisee Kolkata Knight Riders would have to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Knights which will get updated to a contract once approved by the BCCI.

If approved the pacer from Gaggu Mandi will be worth 75,000 $ in a year with additional 2000 $ in every match he plays with Shahrukh Khan’s Knights who haven’t yet had any great luck at the cash rich IPL so far, even though having a huge fan base and with quite ease has churned revenue for the sponsors.

By: Soubhik Ray

Tags: Cricket, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2011, KKR, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mohammed Irfan, Wasim Akram