Mohammad Azharuddin – The Artist
among the Housepainters
It’s the
stuff dreams are made of. Near impossible to emulate, memories of such feats
are passed through generations as folklore, etched into the books of history. What
do you make of a Batsman who, in this generation when players are idolized for
scoring centuries in their debut tests, scored centuries in his first three
test matches? Do you call him ‘Special’? Do you call him ‘Gifted’? Who can you
even compare him to, since he has no equal in this respect? The only thing you
can do, the only thing that would do justice to his talent, is to sit back and
enjoy the genius at display. You watch a perfectly pitched delivery outside
off-stump flicked away through mid-wicket for a boundary. You applaud the subtle
flamboyance and silken touch of the maestro– Mohammad Azharuddin.
It’s strange
how a simple piece of wood can take so many different forms. Sir Viv Richards and
Virender Sehwagused their bats as clubs. Mark Waugh and Rahul Dravid waved them
like magic wands. Azhar, however, was an artist. His bat was his brush, which
he used to paint strokes on the canvas of the cricket field.
In the
modern era, batting is about thwacking the bowlers, helped often by bigger bats
and small boundaries. Outside edges fly for sixes, and mishits run away for fours.
But very rarely do we now find anything reminiscent of Azharuddin’s stroke
play. It makes you wonder how a man, who used the lightest of bats, in an era preceding
fielding restrictions and batsman friendly tracks, scored, what was then, the
fastest ODI century. For the curious, he reached the milestone in 62 deliveries.
Growing up
in India during the 90’s required us to idolize Sachin Tendulkar. Rahul Dravid
and Saurav Ganguly came close to achieving the God-like status Sachin enjoyed.
Perhaps their status as the saviours of Indian cricket was accentuated, and to
certain extent, perpetuated, by the explosion of cable television. But this
mass explosion of public broadcasting missed the prime years of Azhar’s
batting. How different would our perceptions of Indian batting geniuses have
been had we been able to witness the most artistic exhibition of his batting,
now only available on YouTube for those who are interested? For a cricketer who
spent his early days in the shadow of Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar, and his latter
under Sachin and Souravs, India’s youth has never, unfortunately, been exposed
to his exploits in international cricket.
During one
of the 2015 World Cup promotional events, which I was fortunate to attend, Gary
Kirsten, then coach of the National Indian team, was asked who he considered
the finest ever stroke maker in Indian batting. Many were thinking about the
usual “Sachin as finest” answer, but he surprised everyone by naming Mohammed
Azharuddin and Virender Sehwag and it doesn’t take much to understand why.
During India’s tour of South Africa in 1997, when Gary Kirsten was a key member
of the Proteas side, he got a first-row seat to one of the finest batting performances
of the modern era. India were down in tatters against Donald & Co. at 58/5, staring at a first innings total of 529 put
on the board by the opposition. What followed over the course of the next 40
overs was some of the most majestic batting against one of the best bowling
attack of its times. Azhar, along with Sachin at the other end, put on a 222
run partnership to avoid a follow on. The bowling looked pedestrian among a
plethora of boundaries in the session after lunch. Maybe a brief chat with ‘Madiba’
(Nelson Mandela, then President of South Africa) was enough to boost the duo.
Lance Klusner, who ended up conceding 88 runs in 12 overs he bowled, can
probably testify that Azhar’s inning was the finest exhibition of cover drives
and wristy flicks. Two months earlier, at the Eden Gardens, a ground where
Azhar’s lowest test score is 52, against the same opposition, he conjured up
one of the fastest 100s in test cricket.
He followed up with another 163 in the next match in Kanpur to win the
series for India. If this was not enough proof of his authority against premier
attacks, rewind to England, 1990. At Lord’s, Graham Gooch, after being dropped
earlier during the innings, had scored 333. Centuries by Allan Lamb and Robin
Smith followed too. But anyone who was part of the game will probably tell you
that the innings which stood out in this fest of run-scoring brilliance was
Azhar’s 121 off 111 balls. John Woodcock, one of the foremost cricket
journalists, said of Azhar, “It’s of no
use asking an English Batsman to bat like Azhar, for it would be like expecting
a Greyhound to win the London Derby”.
Azhar’s
prolific run scoring was not just on display in tests. His record in ODI’s was
equally admirable. Before Sachin surpassed him, Azhar was the highest run
scorer in One Day International cricket. Nine thousand runs in an era of quality
fast bowling was no mean achievement. His knock of 90 in the Hero Cup
semi-final against South Africa laid the foundation of one of the most famous
victories on home soil, where India were the eventual winners of the trophy. A
captain made for 90’s, Azhar enjoyed success in both ODIs and Tests at Home.
Teams like England, Zimbabwe, New Zealand and West Indies were at the receiving
end of his captaincy.
If his
conquests with the bat, and leading the country, weren’t enough, Azharuddin’s
skills in the field, an area perennially neglected by Indian cricket, were a
sight to behold. Azhar was the arguable India’s most dynamic fielder of his
generation, laying down the foundations of the unbelievable display of
athleticism we witness, and applaud, in the youth today. While there were fielders
who were specialists in certain positions, Azhar’s fielding and catching
abilities, transcended any one particular position. He was as sharp in the
slips, as he was graceful at long on. The 250 catches in international cricket,
along with the innumerable run outs he instigated, gave us a glimpse of his
superior reflexes and the impact on the game.
As much as
we can try to avoid it, no conversation about Azhar will be complete without
addressing the elephant in the room. At the turn of the century, allegations of
match fixing allegations were made against him, fuelled by Hansie Cronje’s
(former South Africa captain) statement claiming that Azhar was the one who
introduced him to bookies. He was handed a life-ban in 2000 by BCCI and ICC as
a result of these allegations, and robbed of the opportunity to play what could
have been his 100th Test Match. Since then, BCCI has revoked the ban
and in 2006 even honoured him during the Champions Trophy which was being held
in India. In 2012, Andhra Pradesh High Court lifted the ban too. We may never
find out who fixed the match, but a lot of sentiments were hurt when the news
broke out to the world. That one of the heroes of Indian batting was named in
such a case didn’t go down well with the public. For if you take his name now
and ask a random cricket follower what he could associate Azharuddin with, ‘Match
Fixing’ is the only thing that this brilliant cricketer is associated with. Not
his batting, not his fielding, not his captaincy but Match Fixing.
Yet for a
lot of people around the world, who grew up while watching Azhar at his prime,
he remains that special player who mixed art and pleasure with his batting.
That people from that generation fondly recall his heroics in his debut test
series and boast about being present at Green Park in Kanpur where he scored
his 3rd of the lot, (two of my uncles keep quoting that match over
and over again) talks about the impact he left on the fans. For someone who
scored 22 test centuries, including in his first and his last match, and scored
more than 15000 international runs, Azhar never quite enjoyed the respect as
other former cricketers have from their peers and fans. It’s sad that one
incident marred the legacy of 16 years of high quality international cricket.
And while we
all can argue over the rights and wrongs of his career, today on his 53rd
birthday, we can play those innings on loop in front of us and enjoy the lost
art of batting. Some of my personal favourite ones are listed below:
1. 115 vs South Africa, Cape Town, 1997
2. 102 vs New Zealand, Basin Reserve, 1998
3. 163 vs Australia, Eden Gardens, 1998
4. 121 vs England, Lord’s, 1990
5. 109 vs South Africa, Eden Gardens, 1996
I hope you
could find some time out of your busy schedule and watch these magnificent
innings played by one of the finest artists of the game.
- with contributions from Nitesh Kumar
First published on www.followyoursport.com
i love azhar.. he is my first hero... not only in cricket but my life.... he is legend of indian cricket..
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