A fan's tribute to the talent that is Zaheer Khan
In the searing heat that gropes the nation now, you prepare to run your last lap, not quite the same gallop, the leap – a dwarf compared to that when you started, some sore muscles, a few joints ground by the pounding you put them through every game.
The IPL storm is striking us and sadly it will be your last competitive tourney and I can’t help but track you closely, Zak.
Fast bowlers in India have rarely been fast and have barely been icons, you were and are a bit of both. When I first saw you coil into that high leap at the stumps, like a spring unleashing potential built up in it, I was thrilled, curious, excited, relieved and joyous – to say the least.
That yorker to Andrew Hall in your opening over was a “payback” of sorts, it delivered the common Indian cricket fan from the cauldron of self-pity for not having enough ammunition to blow up the batting to a world of a feisty, zestful spirit. Watching you came to be a realisation and belief that we could be fast too.
We could crush toes, smack fingers and donate a few glares at them- those batsmen! We had a fast bowler – we had our own little leftie – So what if he wasn’t as good as Wasim Akram and as magical? So what if he didn’t deliver bazookas from hell like Allan Donald did and so what if he was not as frugal as Glenn McGrath?
We finally had somebody that lived like a fast bowler, thought like one and aspired to breathe fire on the pitch, finally somebody who delivered consistently – to pair with our very steady Javagal Srinath – a two-man pace attack – we could dream of some assaults!
Unfortunately for us, fate played the villain. We barely got to see the two of you have a go. It wasn’t for more than a couple of seasons. Maybe you should have been born 10 years earlier.
But that said, in the unforgiving life of a fast bowler – you grew, rounding your skills, working around niggles that never deserted you. From being a hot-headed sling of a bowler to one that could work batsmen out, draw them out of their burrows and cleverly get their scalps – Zaheer, you did a neat job. Ask Graeme Smith if you need more evidence.
Ours has been a parallel run of sorts, we grew together, losing tempers and fumbling along the way, getting overawed by big days in life – it happened to you sometimes, it happened to me. I lost it when I saw the mauling at Johannesburg in the 2003 World Cup final, tempers flared and ended with my blood being spiked with disappointment.
I didn’t know what to do – to walk up to you and calm you down or to go trip Ricky Ponting while he attempted a single so we could get him run out? It must have been a very long day for you. It surely was for me.
Age does strange things, it slows one’s body down but it sharpens one’s mind with wisdom and priceless experience. The English summer of 2007 was a treat for me.
I saw a wiser you, shifting angles of attack, over and around and vice versa, you made a great lead. You often led by example while the younger ones in the attack began to emulate you.
It was India’s bowling that was a real surprise in that series. From then on, India started fielding a good and spirited fast bowling attack, having a variety of bowlers in its arsenal and using their services judiciously. India’s spirited fights in South Africa in 2008 are a testimony to this.
And do you remember batting for close to 40 overs with VVS Laxman on that tour? I never believed you could bat. I thought that you were too excited to stop your urge to hit every ball into the stars! I would be tearing my hair upon seeing you attempt and fail. You looking shabby on the pitch and I, in my drawing room.
It was at those times I wondered if you could ever calm down and play with the bigger picture in your mind.
Coming to happier things and familiar territory – When the ball got old and you started hiding it like a trickster while you ran to deliver, you were surely a cunning, wise bowler, weren’t you?
Watching you do that gave me a great thrill, it demanded much more from me as an audience for I had to be alert to track the trajectory you chose to impart to the ball.
It surely demanded much more of the men that faced you then, they had to tackle your mind and then face the ball. The game ceased to be just wood and leather – it escalated into a vociferous quarrel between your mind and the batsman’s. It is safe to say that more often than not, you had the last laugh, with your arms spread wide and yelling a “Come-on” with a sense of accomplishment.
You gave me that same sense through your celebration.
World Cup glory
The World Cup of 2011 must certainly be the high of your career, you bowled strange balls - using knuckles, fingers, palms and what not? You bowled some of your best spells of your career, picking wickets like they were an eventual certainty! The ball to get rid of Andrew Strauss and then to fool Collingwood - that part of the match is as good as fiction.
Unreal! But certain, given that you were in that zone of exceptional control and overt deception.
Now that you have decided to walk away after this funny little lap and a few last bouts in this brawl called the IPL, I will miss you, Zak!
I will miss the joy of seeing you reverse swing the old ball, the agony of seeing you limp away, giving in to another injury, the fury of seeing you not have a great day on the field.
Most of all, the satisfaction of watching an Indian fast bowler, one who lived like a fast bowler and thought like one, dodging career threatening injuries and weaving a little web in my heart with his stride and leap!