Gaurav Kapur. Pic/Sneha Kharabe

In the harsh summer of Rawalpindi, a young Shoaib Akhtar would rush home from school, only to step out the next moment to do what he was meant to - bowl fast deliveries that other kids in the dusty maidaan failed to comprehend. Once he’d had his fill of cricket for the day, the scorching heat would be beaten with a tumbler of sugarcane juice. “I struck a deal with the vendor. He would give me juice for free, and once I established myself as a cricketer, I would set up a shop for him,” Akhtar tells producer and cricket presenter Gaurav Kapur, as the two meet over a late breakfast at a Powai five-star.