A lot has changed in the six years since Charlie Wakim made the move from New South Wales to Tasmania but he couldn’t be happier with how life has panned out. See his story.
A lot has changed in the six years since Charlie Wakim made the move from New South Wales to Tasmania but the 31-year-old couldn’t be happier with how life in the Apple Isle has panned out.
The Tasmanian Tigers contracted batter has had as busy a time off the field as he has had off it the last few years.
He married partner Georgia in 2021, the same year he ventured into the business world with Pino and Picasso Hobart and Launceston alongside fellow Tigers Jordan Silk and Jackson Bird.
All this was before becoming a dad to Freddie in 2022.
“It does feel like home now,” Wakim told The Mercury.
“We’ve brought a place, myself and my wife, and now we have a one-year old who is a fully fledged ‘Taswegian’ so we love Tasmania.”
“Being a dad is the best thing ever. It’s challenging at times but it’s always worth it. It really does put things into perspective, as cliche as that sounds. You start to question why you get so angry at things on the cricket field when you walk back through the front door at home and you’ve got a couple of people that love you no matter what.”
Overlooked in the pathways system as a teenager, Wakim completed a commerce degree at the University of New South Wales before a call from former Cricket Tasmania CEO Nick Cummins in 2017 with a two-year contract offer saw him pack up his life and make the move to Tasmania.
Wakim made an instant impact, scoring a century on his first-class debut for Tasmania in 2018 and while six more half centuries have followed, he hasn’t been able to crack into the Shield side this season.
That’s despite some strong performances in the Cricket Tasmania Premier League (CTPL) for Lindisfarne and for Tasmania’s Second XI side.
The Lightning captain has scored 653 runs with three rounds to play and currently sits third only behind teammate Mac Wright (804) and New Town captain Mitch Owen (796) for runs scored in 2022/23.
“I had a terrible start to the season and couldn’t buy a run but plugged away and found a bit of form after Christmas in the T20s and I was able to string a few scores together which is good,” Wakim said.
“The team is doing really well. We unfortunately lost the T20 grand final but managed to scrape our way into the one-day final and are sitting pretty good in second place in the two-day format.
“We’ve had a couple of Tasmanian representatives have good availability for us this year with Mac Wright and Jarrod Freeman. Those two boys are obviously a huge part of our squad and play massive roles for us. But also the young guys coming through, one is Keegan Oates, who are doing really well.
“I think you just have to keep putting performances on the board in second eleven and premier league and hopefully there is an opportunity that comes my way. That hasn’t come quite yet this season but I’ve just got to stay ready if and when that comes and hopefully just keep banging the door and make the decision for the coaches (in a sense).”
Wakim doesn’t have much time to worry about those decisions off-field though with his paint and sip business keeping him busy when he’s not scoring runs.
“It’s just another avenue to switch off your cricket brain and try and focus on something else,” Wakim said.
“It’s an exciting little chapter in our lives and it’s cool to be able to work with people that you are familiar with in the cricket world and see how they operate in the business space.
“With professional sport and cricket you can only physically train a certain amount of hours a day so you end up with a bit of downtime and I think it’s healthy to fill those hours with something productive so Cricket Tasmania certainly support that for a lot of guys.
“Cricket isn’t forever so it’s really important to upskill in other areas of life.”
While the busy batter may have now ticked over the 30-mark, he says arriving to the professional scene in his mid-twenties has him feeling like there is still a lot of petrol left in the tank.
Originally published as Tiger Charlie Wakim loving every minute in Tasmania
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