The fall of My hero

 

When I was studying for Engineering, I distinctly remember my brown folder in which I would keep papers for submissions. At its cover - on the top I had neatly stuck a half A4 size close pic of Mohammad Azharuddin with his Reebok bat. The picture was cut with great care as and I took time and pain to cut the part where Azhar’s body and bat was extracted. Those were also the days when I had 3 Sportstar posters of Azhar in my room.

In the 90s, Sachin had truly arrived. It was natural that Sachin was the declared love of most who followed cricket. However most of these romantics of the game had another “forbidden love”. Mohammed Azharuddin. For me he was my first love. In fact people of a certain vintage will hate to confess their love for Mohammed Azharuddin in cricket and Sonali Bendre in films.

My first memories of cricket are from 1986 World cup and there abouts. I remember a small booklet of Indian players representing India in the world cup in the Hindi “Cricket Samrat”. It was mentioned on Azhar’s page that during that time he was the only cricketer in the world to have scored 3 hundreds in his first 3 tests. As a matter of fact that record still holds till such date.

We can talk about his statistics and records. There is a bit of tragedy in there. He played 99 tests for India. Not 100.  But 99!!!! When he had to be done with his career, he had played more ODIs than anyone else in the history of cricket at that time. For a while he had been the most loved cricketer in the country. There was an innocence about him, a shyness that was startling, even irritating in an international superstar. He burst into tears when sledged in Australia. He was God-fearing, polite, soft-spoken, modest - all the qualities Indian fans love in a player. And he used the cricket bat like a magic wand, seeming to merely wave it over the ball to send it to the boundary. There was a gentleness to it; even the fiercest drives never screamed or imitated tracer bullets. His wrists brought back memories of Gundappa Viswanath and even Ranjitsinhji, especially for those like me who hadn't seen these greats play. How could you not love him? And man did I love him!

One cannot talk about Azharuddin  and  now talk about “Wrists”  of M Azharuddin. The joint between the hand and the forearm – the wrist – gives humans a degree of dexterity and flexibility. When an artist leverages the benefits of the wrist and makes use of this “rare” art, magic is created. Take the wrist-play out of Mohammad Azharuddin and you would take away the soul from his batting. His batting was delectable to the eye when he was in full flow. The struggles made him look ordinary. But Azharuddin, throughout his career, was the harbinger of the hope that a miracle was around the corner. When on song, he would decimate the opposition, not with brute force, but with silken touch.

Similarly, one cannot talk about M Azharuddin and then not speak of his fielding. He can extraordinary in gully. His slip catching could only be matched by Mark Waugh till such day. The speed with which he would reach the ball, the release of the ball with wrists from back of the body …. Man there was a swagger even on the field. He definitely had a swagger with his walk, his collar half up. This was however not the Viv Richards kind of swagger. It was confident and yet not flamboyant. It was an Indian swag which was confident but respectful to others.

When it comes to his best innings people will point out the 1^st 3 hundreds in Calcutta, Chennai and Kanpur followed by 93 Not out on his ODI debut against Pakistan in Benson and Hedges world championship or or his Adelaide hundred in  92. What I remember is his defiant innings in 1996 in Eden Gardens when he hit Lance Klusener for 4 fours in an over. India lost that test and the series was on the line. Azhar scored a quick 163 in Kanpur to set up 2-1 series win. Immediately in a month India was playing tests in South Africa. In the 2^nd test at Cape Town, Azhar and Sachin’s partnership of 230 is the story for the ages. Azhar was at his aggressive best scoring a 110 ball 115. Yes it was a test match. Such stories were not new with Azhar’s batting. In 1988, Azhar smashed the then fastest ODI century bringing up his hundred off 62 balls against New Zealand. In 1996, he equalled Kapil Dev’s record for the fastest test 100 which he smashed in 74 balls! He also has scored 100 runs by himself in a session in 1990 against England in England.

So here was the rockstar of Indian cricket who captained for a long period of time and yet when he scored a test 100 in South Africa in his 99^th Test, the Match fixing scandal broke out. Not that this was totally unexpected. 81 All out chasing 120 at Bridgetown was a reminder. Many in Indian cricket knew, India was losing matches it should have one. The Hansie Cronje revelations and CBI report came with Tehalka revelations. BCCI banned Azhar from playing for life. While the life ban was lifted later but Azhar’s career came to an end diametrically opposite the way it started. The heart break for fans like me was enormous. I lost my cricketing innocence. I was disillusioned and didn’t watch the game for almost 6 months to a year. He did not betray the country but every fan of his.

To make it worse, he has never publicly acknowledged the mistake. On the contrary he remarked that he was being targeted as he was a minority. Truth cannot be far from this. Someone even like a Balasaheb Thackrey had called the former captain “An Ideal Muslim”.

Millions like me have had their hearts broken and unfortunately the closure never came. Azhar has never acknowledged the mistake. In fact a butchered and low grade movie makes the closure even more difficult. It was the 1^st hear break and one has still not be able to close it and move on. Even now like an old lover, when one quietly snoops at his batting videos, one cannot but forget the truth and immerse in his artistic batting. Like most love stories, this story ended with a tragedy and no closure.

My hero had fallen !