“I’m not aware of any mistakes I’ve made this summer”, this was Ted Dexter, Chairman of Selectors, after England got caned in the 1989 Ashes. Selecting a side is never easy; making an impression over the over greased selectors even difficult in India, where the sheer weight of baggage is enormous that a player has to carry before catching a selectors eye. Parvez Rasool did catch an eye.
Playing for Board President’s XI (yes, the head honcho of irregularities has an XI) against Australia, Parvez’s drift and guile duped seven Aussie batters. The shy boy from Bijbehara, a small town that connects Kashmir with India through a jalopy laden highway, started making noises in the gray corridors of BCCI HQ at Mumbai. An IPL selection for Pune few months later boosted his confidence further.
In between, BCCI had a harmless scheduled tour to Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s godforsaken land still plays cricket. Who hoots?
“I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe; I want us to be a nation of gentlemen”, Mugabe had said famously in 1984. The story didn’t turn the way he had expected. Despots paint a picture and then ruin it themselves. But that is for another day.
Parvez was named in the touring squad of 15. Took me at least by surprise! Was this a Sadbhavna gesture? The mind kept boggling. Nevertheless, seeing a fellow countryman doing well bloated our chests. After all, there are only two things that get us Kashmiris excited for all dime and reason: Saal batte and cricket. We loathe; we bemoan; we rue and we sing the blues, over a well gelled Yakhni and a copybook cover drive in the same measure.
The boy waited patiently on the bench, cooling his heels. I don’t know if he got a chance to catch the Safari all these days. Or was he too nervous already to test the African wildlife. Meanwhile, people back home gasped held their breath. After each game the back-fence whispers started gaining vigour – from narrow snaky alleys of Bijbehara to the over-heated navid vaans in an unusually hot summer of Downtown Srinagar. The buzz was common: they won’t play him. Virat Kohli is Jansangh; this was just an eye-wash.
The speculations came true. Sadly! Parvez returned home without playing a game. Kneejerk reactions poured left and right. We blamed the poor boy. We called him a traitor who deserved this disgrace. Good lord! He is just trying to lure the batsman with his flight. State’s cute, fish mouthed CM joined the bandwagon. He demands he has a right to opinion in one of his tweets. We agree. If only he did so on more serious matters.
All said, Parvez perhaps deserved a chance. Or maybe he didn’t. But, if he is good he will have his day in the sun. A good Ranji season should get him back into reckoning. India is still searching for a Kumble, a Harbhajan. The Ashwins and Chawlas haven’t still earned a permanent place in the XI, someone remind Parvez, before he loiters depressingly along the fields that run parallel to Jehlum, where he first learned that flight.
You say that cricket has nothing to do with politics and you say that cricket has nothing to do with life! Prophetic words! Best of luck my countryman.
FJG is a Kashmiri IT professional based in Dubai.
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