Kamran Akmal the “Hen Catcher”

There were some players who spent a lot of time in planning to deliver their best in the ICC 2011 World Cup and went through rigorous “training” for making their dreams come true.
Kamran Akmal, is one individual, who gives his best in all fields of life and doesn’t fall behind. His commitment level can be judged from the fact that he brushes his teeth 5 times in the morning just to give himself a bright smile before a big match.
But like all other mere mortals he is also quite vulnerable and can get into trouble with his “wicket keeping” skills.
On March 22^nd, Akmal missed 4 chances in Pakistan’s losing cause against New Zealand and what made matters worse was the fact that he dropped centurion, Ross Taylor, twice.
Not many people know the real reason behind these dropped catches, but one thing is for certain that there was a secret “ingredient”, which was missing from his wicket keeping skills against New Zealand in Pallekele.
Kamran Akmal is a professional hen catcher and knows the art of catching hens in a perfect manner.  Kamran Akmal hails from Lahore, Punjab and has been following his favourite sport since his childhood.
Kamran along with Umar Akmal loves to catch hens and they love this game so much that even in their busy cricket schedule they take time out to catch hens in their native village of “Chawalpur”.
What both brothers do is that they try to catch a fully gown jungle rooster and when they manage to catch it they throw it to each other for some catching practice. They have also have approval from the wildlife department.
When Umar AKA “pinto” throws a ball to Kamran, Kamran opens both his hands like a child and catches the rooster with both hands.
This practice guarantees good catching skills for wicket keepers. It’s a delicate procedure and it must not be tried with “farm chickens”. Only a jungle hen, or, rooster should be chosen for this procedure.
Though, Kamran indulges in full catching sessions before every match and spends a number of hours catching the ball from every angle, his hen catching is his true source of skill.
He has also been advised by his village chief that it is quite necessary that he must get plenty of hen catching practice at least twice a month.
Sadly, he was not able to get any jungle roosters in Pallekele, and all he found were some small “chicks” from the personal chicken farm of Muttiah Muralitharan.