Former Pakistan cricket team fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar recently expressed his desire to have played more matches in the Indian Premier League during his active days as a cricketer. Akhtar played a few matches for the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2008. He is best remembered for his match-winning spell against the Delhi Daredevils team.
In a recent interview with RevSportz, Shoaib Akhtar recalled his maiden IPL season and said that he enjoyed playing under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly for the Kolkata Knight Riders team. Ganguly led KKR in the inaugural season. At that time, Akhtar was serving a ban from Pakistan Cricket Board and was not in great shape when he arrived to play for the Knight Riders.
The Kolkata Knight Riders coach was not sure if he should make it to the playing XI. However, Sourav Ganguly convinced the coach to add Shoaib to the playing XI, and he won the match for his franchise.
“Sourav was one of the finest captains that India could have asked for. I enjoyed playing under him. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t play more games in the IPL and we were eliminated from the tournament. But there was passion, right from the stadium to the ground, we had a blast,” said Shoaib Akhtar.
Shoaib Akhtar and other Pakistani cricketers never played in IPL after 2008
The first season of the IPL was the only one that featured the cricketers from Pakistan. A few players from Pakistan registered for the 2010 IPL Auction, but all of them went unsold.
Due to political tensions between the two nations, Pakistan’s players do not play in the IPL. Some Pakistan origin players have earned contracts as overseas players because they held passport of other countries.
