'He made me who I am today' - Kolkata player thanks Gautam Gambhir

The 15^th edition of the Indian T20 League recently concluded on May 26 (Thursday). The tournament witnessed a new champion this year in the form of new entrants, Gujarat. The Ahmedabad-based franchise was led by the 28-year-old all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Although, this was not a good season for a few teams including the multi-time champions Mumbai and Chennai.

Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata was also one of those teams which had to struggle throughout the tournament. Nonetheless, recently Kolkata’s wicketkeeper-batter Sheldon Jackson has thanked the team’s former mentor Gautam Gambhir for his support. Jackson recalled his experiences when Gambhir was there in Kolkata’s dugout as a mentor.

He backed me back when no on knew me - Sheldon Jackson

"Gautam Gambhir literally made me who I am today. He picked me up from a Ranji trophy team and he backed me back then when no one knew me. He got me into KKR and groomed me. He is my idol,” Jackson was quoted as saying to Sportskeeda.

The 36-year-old senior domestic wicketkeeper-batter did not get a chance to play many matches for the team in the season 2022. He got to play only 5 matches and could score only 23 runs. He was bought by Kolkata in the mega auction for an amount of INR 60 lakhs after going through a bidding war with Lucknow.

To note, in Indian T20 League’s 2022 season, Gambhir was serving as the mentor in the camp of new entrants, Lucknow. KL Rahul-led Lucknow made it to the playoffs of their debut season in the Indian T20 League where they lost to Bangalore in the eliminator by 14 runs.

Kolkata might think of retaining Sheldon Jackson for the next season of the Indian T20 League which is to be played next year in 2023.

Recently, there is also a big update regarding the media rights of the League. The broadcasting rights have been sold to separate broadcasters including the Television Rights and digital rights as well.