When Wasim Akram got bricked

Hazing the newbie is a cherished tradition across sports, and Wasim Akram wasn't spared either. During his early county cricket stint in England, Akram recalled being the victim of a long-running prank by Lancashire teammate Michael Watkinson. At the time Akram was only 21, alone in a foreign country and still adjusting to life away from Pakistan. "Remember those days when we used to have those cricket bags? We used to call them coffins without wheels. Now you can carry it or you have people carry it for you. In county cricket we used to carry our kit bags ourselves. And I was very young, and didn't know I have to wash my old clothes - we're a bit spoiled in Pakistan, our moms do everything!"

The first month, Akram found himself lugging around an increasingly heavy kit bag. He assumed it was the burden of his equipment and perhaps the weight of unwashed clothes piling up in it. Only when he finally ran out of clean clothes and decided to clear his bag did he find out what he'd been lugging around all this while - the gift of a hefty brick to prank the newcomer.

Akram recounted the story to much amusement on the Stick to Cricket podcast, looking back on his early days in cricket. And newbie he may have been but Akram bided his time and got some sweet revenge on Watkinson. "I cut his socks!"