Arfan Akram (Arabic: عَرْفَان أَكْرَم) (born 17 November 1983) is a British

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. Akram played second XI cricket for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

between 2001 and 2003, during which time he also played minor counties and

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the num ...

for

Essex Cricket Board The Essex Cricket Board is the governing body for all recreational cricket in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Essex. From 1999 to 2003 the Board fielded a team in the Friends Provident Trophy, English domestic one-day tourname ...

. In 2004 he played second XI cricket for

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

. While studying leisure and tourism at

Anglia Polytechnic University Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public research university in the region of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins date back to the Cambridge School of Art (CSA), founded by William John Beamont, a Fellow of Trinity College at the Univers ...

, between 2002 and 2005, he played for

Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence Cambridge University Cricket Club, established in 1820, is the representative cricket club for students of the University of Cambridge. The club was recognised as holding first-class status until 2020. The university played List A cricket in 1 ...

, including eight first-class matches. Akram continued playing amateur cricket as captain of Wanstead and Snaresbrook CC, alongside his twin brother

Adnan Adnan () is traditionally regarded as the patriarch of the Adnanite Arabs, a major Arab lineage that historically inhabited Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Arabia. The Adnanites are distinct from the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia ...

; he also played for the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) between 2006 and 2018. In 2010, Akram was selected as one of 21 players to form the first

Unicorns The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

squad to take part in the

Clydesdale Bank 40 The ECB40, last known as the Yorkshire Bank 40 (YB40) for sponsorship reasons, was a forty-over limited overs cricket competition for the English first-class counties. It began in the 2010 English cricket season as a replacement for the Pro40 a ...

domestic

limited overs Limited overs cricket, also known as white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed within one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty20 cricket (3-h ...

competition against the regular first-class counties. The Unicorns were made up of 15 former county cricket professionals and 6 young cricketers looking to make it in the professional game.Cricinfo staff
Unicorns name squad for Clydesdale Bank 40
13 April 2010,

Cricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved on 2 May 2010. In 2012, Akram was working as the university cricket co-ordinator at the

University of East London University of East London (UEL) is a public university located in the London Borough of Newham, London, England, based at three campuses in Stratford, London, Stratford and London Docklands, Docklands, following the opening of University Squar ...

, after which he worked for Essex Cricket as their cricket co-ordinator for East London.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Akram, Arfan English cricketers Unicorns cricketers 1983 births English people of Pakistani descent Sportspeople of Pakistani descent Living people Essex Cricket Board cricketers English twins Cambridge MCCU cricketers British Asian cricketers Alumni of Anglia Ruskin University