Head coach Anil Kumble's assistant at the Punjab Kings, former India opener Wasim Jaffer, was recently asked by fans on social media about his experience of coaching former West Indies captain and opener Chris Gayle who played for the Punjab Kings until Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.
Jaffer has recently developed a witty social media persona, making him a superstar for cricket fans on Twitter, thanks to the former Mumbai and Vidarbha batter’s funny tweets and relatable memes. Many fans often flood his tweets every time he posts something there.
Jaffer prefers Twitter and shares experience
In a recent live online chat with cricket digital collectables platform Rario co-founder and CEO Ankit Wadhwa, Jaffer explained why he took to Twitter to express his opinions and feelings.
“I have always been a serious player on the field, and I am an introvert by nature as well," the Punjab Kings assistant coach explained. "But social media has given me a chance to explore my fun side and hopefully make people laugh in the process,”
During the online banter with the Rario CEO, a fan asked Jaffer about his experience of coaching West Indies cricketer Gayle in the IPL, to which he answered that Gayle was already a good player and he had nothing to coach him about, save for Indian movie culture and memes.
“There isn’t much about T20 batting that I can teach him, he is a legendary player," the former India opener answered. "I can only teach him about upping his social media game, but for that, I will have to show him Indian movies so that he can also create some funny memes.”
Earlier in November, Gayle criticised current openers in T20 cricket, saying their extra cautious approach in the power plays were "killing the entertainment". He added that T10 had set new standards when it comes to explosive batting.
"I think, with T10 cricket, that's how T20 cricket started," Gayle said. "From the first over, batters used to go but T20 cricket has slowed down dramatically and T10 cricket has now raised the bar a bit.
"They're killing the entertainment in T20 cricket, straight up, because in those first six overs, we can get more as openers but guys are taking their own time. Sometimes they bat to get a score and they take away from the fire they should be bringing to the batting department in the first six overs, but T10 is spot on and hopefully, we'll see more T10 coming around."
NFT, future of crickets collectables
Jaffer also talked about the appeal of collectables among cricket fans, saying that he was a collector himself.
“I have always loved collecting cricket memorabilia," Jaffer said. "Earlier it used to be autographs of my childhood heroes like Sachin Tendulkar, and later I liked collecting stamps from memorable matches. If I, as a cricketer, get such joy in collecting such mementoes, I can only imagine how thrilling it is for fans. So, I am sure cricket NFTs will soon become a household word.”
Rario is a digital collectable platform for cricket fans where they collect and trade cricket moments based on blockchain technology to verify ownership. Rario has signed to exclusively mint NFTs of cricket stars, including Rishabh Pant, Zaheer Khan, Smriti Mandhana, Faf Du Plessis, Shakib Al Hasan and Shafali Verma, as well as international cricket leagues, including the Caribbean Premier League, Lanka Premier League, and Abu Dhabi T10.
