Samiya wants to bowl like Akram

Dubai: Samiya Salim Sanghati, who bagged the Shyam Bhatia annual award for the best woman cricketer of the year, wants to bowl like Pakistan's legendary pacer Wasim Akram.

"I am a left-arm, medium pacer and I idolise Akram. I hope to bowl like him one day," said Samiya, who has represented the UAE at international level for the last four years.

"I represented the UAE women's team at the age of 14 and toured Malaysia. I have also represented the UAE under-19 team and played in Thailand, Singapore and Kuwait. My aim is to become a well-known cricketer and help spread women's cricket too," she added.

Sanghati bagged six wickets in three matches in Thailand and helped the UAE reach the Asian Under-19 semi-finals in Singapore. She secured a place among the top Asian Cricket Council bowlers of the tournament with 10 wickets. The acclaimed cricketer is currently the UAE under-19 vice-captain.

Inspiration

Sanghati added: "It was my father [Salim Sanghati] who inspired me to play cricket. He is a keen lover of the game and he took me to Shahzad Altaf's Young Talents Cricket Academy for coaching. Altaf taught me the basics and kept working hard on my bowling."

She recently had the chance to train under former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad. "It was really awesome to get tips from such a great bowler. His tips were really good and he made me bowl for long periods in the practice nets," explained Samiya, who is a mechanical engineering student at Manipal University in India.

"I want to be a successful mechanical engineer, but as a cricketer I want to improve a lot more and inspire women cricketers here through my success," said Samiya.