Charlie Wakim on not wanting to be defined by ’talent’

G’day legends. Welcome back or welcome to the Cricket Mentoring Podcast. This episode was recorded at the end of April 2020 when we were at the height of the coronavirus in Australia. It’s not being published in early June 2020 and fortunately, things have become much more positive in Australia and around the world.

Today’s guest is a friend of mine and someone I’ve watched go from an average cricketer to scoring a huge hundred on his first-class debut. 

Charlie Wakim grew up in Sydney and loved his cricket but in his own words, matured as a person and a player a bit later and it wasn’t until he was 25 that he became a professional cricketer when he was awarded a contract with Tasmania. After some tough times, Charlie finally got a lucky break when George Bailey got injured during a Big Bash match and boy did he take his chance by scoring 160 on debut.

I absolutely love sharing the unique and individual stories of cricketers at different stages of their career on this podcast and after what some would say was a long journey to becoming a professional cricketer, Charlie is coming into the prime of his career.

This is another incredible story of tenacity and never giving up and I’m sure it will give hope to a lot of young cricketers around the world, especially if you’re not necessarily the best player in your team or state right now.