A tale extraordinaire - Parvez Rasool

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it. All our dreams can come true. If you we have the courage to pursue them.”

– Walt Disney

Nothing is impossible. After all, how hard it could be to dream & play cricket in a country that breathes more cricket & less oxygen? It could be. When you come from the country’s one of the most, if not the most politically disturbed place. And geographically, not at all suitable for cricket. Laid in the serene beauty of the snow clad Himalayas under the mountaneous Karakoram valley & to the west of the Tibetan Plateau, almost 1,073 feet above the sea level in the northern most part of the Indian subcontinent, resides the once peaceful state of Jammu and Kashmir. The place of breathtaking landscapes and breathtaking views, not left behind from the rest of country’s cricketing megalomania, is all set to watch one of its sons take the field in blue in Zimbabwe in a few weeks.

Not even close to the best of facilities, yet, here we are discussing the first ever native Kashmiri to don the blues. He goes by the name of Parvez Ghulam Rasool Zargar. Hailing from the beautiful “Town Of Chinars”, Bijbehara, a small town on the banks of the river Jhelum, the Parvez Rasool saga is worth it all. Like eight out of the ten cricket aspirants, his cricketing influence reflected upon from his father himself, at a very early age. “Parents wanted their children to study,” says his father Ghulam Rasool Zargar, “to become doctors or engineers. But I always wanted my children to follow cricket.”

Ghulam himself was a roller operator in the government’s mechanical engineering department, but his passions seemed to be more engaged in the cricket he played at district level. The growing civil unrest in the Valley put paid to any cricketing aspirations he might have had, but he was determined that things will be different for his boys, Parvez, Asif and Umar.

“You have to be lucky to be born into suh a family,” Parvez says, “for whom cricket is more than an amusement, a game for kids who can’t excel at Science or Mathematics.” The 24 year old Rasool took up cricket rather seriously playing first for his school, then J&K U-14 & U-16 teams, followed by some club cricket representing the Bijbehara Sports Club, a prominent & renowned base for the cricketers hailing from Central & South valleys of Kashmir. There he chanced upon the expert eyes of once Jammu’s poster boy of cricket, Abdul Qayoom. “When I first saw him in the nets, he would bat well and keep wickets. Then one day, he insisted on bowling to the tail-enders. He finished them off one by one and then I knew he was a talent, a real all-rounder.”

2008 :

Soon his cricketing prowess earned him a shift to the capital, Srinagar, where he came under the selection radar to play for the U-19 & U-22 sides. In an U-22 CK Naidu Trophy match of 4 days against Himachal Pradesh, Rasool took 5-78 and hit the winning runs scoring a brisk 21* as Jammu and Kashmir thumped HP by 6 wickets. An upset nevertheless and the main reason behind the upset, Rasool, found himself getting a quick call-up to the senior Ranji side in no time.

Cometh November 16, a bright eyed 18 year old made his debut against the Ranji side of neighbours, Himachal Pradesh. But it didn’t fold the fairytale way. Inexperience was taken for a toll as Rasool gave away 58 and 85 runs in both the innings at a less than impressive economy rate of 5.27 and 5.31 respectively, without picking up a single wicket. His handy contribution of 40 in the first innings came to no use as the mighty Himachal Pradesh thumped Kashmir by 480 big runs.

Dreams suffered a landslide first up, indeed.

Parvez, like many others in the team never had any giant leaps or whatever you would call them. His growth was a gradual one. More like one stair at a time rather than rocketing to the top of the staircase at once. He had a promising first year(2004/05) in the Vijay Merchant trophy. He would never know the at that time, the guy smashing 179 against his team will be his first national captain one day. His dual role helped his cause and was retained for the next edition. Results aside, that season turned out to be a successful one for this man. 202 runs and 16 wickets.

The ‘gradual’ was evident yet again. He found his name in the limited overs team for the next year and retained his position in the longer format. Though the transformation from the U-17 to U-19 didn’t work that well, he picked up his U-19 form in his second year (2007-08) by picking up 8 wickets against Jharkand. He picked up his batting by hitting a fluent 78 against Goa as the tournament went on. He took his team to the Cooch Behar trophy semifinals, securing fourth place. A general observation here is he always peaked with time.

2009 :

Early 2009, right after his 19th birthday, Rasool made his List A debut in a Vijay Hazare Trophy game against Delhi with his soon to be national captain, Mr. Kohli, hitting him all over the park yet again and scoring 102 runs, leaving poor Rasool with an economy rate of 7.25. No prize for guessing, Delhi won the match 112 runs.

But the year 2009 in Pervez Rasool’s career, rather sadly, shall be marked for some other reason.

That was the first time the Jammu and Kashmir team traveled outside the North zone. Rasool, fresh from a fiver against Orissa, along with his friends were excited without knowing the national limelight will be on their side within a couple of days. And not in the best possible way.

ICC Champions Trophy was underway. Rasool and his fellow J&K cricketers were staying at the KSCA complex at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, which happened to be the very same place where a match between Victoria & Cape Cobras was about to begin. Rasool was seized and taken into custody with a “suspicious bag with suspected explosives” causing the match a two- hours delay and ultimately being a 17 over a side affair. Fortunately, he turned out to be “just” a suspect as the Karnataka based Forensic laboratory (FSL) cleared Rasool’s forensic reports & charges.

“I always knew I would get a clean chit. Today, I have been proven innocent, but I request the Police not to let such things happen to anyone else, be it a cricketer or a common man. A small mistake can ruin someone’s life.” But our guy turned out to be very much a Man of Steel. Four days after the Explosives-in-bag-fiasco, Rasool finaly did what he came to do in Bangalore. “Pick up a bat, get in the middle & play some cricket.”

And he did play some cricket, scoring 68 against Karnataka. “After the day’s play he mentioned three times in six minutes about his disappointment of missing out on a century.” Gushed then J&K coach Abdul Qayoom. “The whole team stood up to applaud him & five team mates along with the support staff went downstairs to shepherd him in tapping his helmeted head hard.”

Rasool did find some redemption. He scored a couple of half centuries in the Mumbai match to follow.

“I was determined to show that I am a cricketer and not a terrorist,” roared a pumped up Rasool after his very well made 68 and 35 against the hosts Karnataka after that dreadful experience of him which he describes like this – “Mentally, it was the most difficult phase of my life. I have been touring the country since my under-15 days, but I have never faced a situation like this before. So, you can well imagine what I must have gone through.”

He even raised a question to which almost everyone knew the answer. “While other players kept moving around, I sat in my room and kept thinking: Why me?”

Anyone would have given up and he even thought “I shouldn’t have come.” He swept aside all those thoughts and this says why he is here, travelling abroad with the Indian team.

“And I let my bat do the talking for me this time.”

The building blocks of a fighter in making were polished that day.

2010, 11, 12 :

A couple of wickets and a century at No.6 against Andhra Pradesh in 2010, 5 wickets and 45 runs against Goa in the following were the notable games in his early Ranji career. However 2012/13 was the difference. He had good games and brilliant games all along. Most special of the lot being a game against Assam where he claimed a 5 wicket haul to go with a fantastic century.

2013 :

It was time all the hard work, all the struggle paid off. And it did.

First, he got a place in the the India A squad to play against England in a warm-up in New Delhi; he was the first cricketer from the state and second Kashmiri to do so. He was also the lone cricketer to be picked from J&K to star in the Deodhar Trophy squads in consecutive years, under the captaincy of Virat Kohli.

Then came a Board’s President XI call up to combat the visiting Aussies just before the Border Gavaskar Trophy. The clueless Kangaroos lost nine wickets to spin on the first in Chennai and seven of them were to the very Parvez Rasool.

The National selectors invited him to join the National Team’s camp. “I was so happy,” says Parvez, still visibly elated, “to be a part of the side, to bowl against Dhoni & Sehwag.” As if its sill quite unbelievable, he adds “I travelled with them on the bus and they talked to me, joked with, shard their experiences.”

With some stunning Domestic performances under the belt, the Pune Warriors India picked up Rasool in the IPL auction. And guess what – his first IPL wicket turned out to be none other than Kallis. He did savour the moment to the fullest. Later credited Yuvi for inputs.

The showdown occured late afternoon, 5th of July. Resting the seniors for an inconsequential Zimbabwe tour, Sandeep Patil & Co. decided to give the lad from Jammu a big nod in the touring 15.

Parvez Rasool made the headlines again. This time around, for the correct reasons though.

“Because we are Kashmiri, because of the bad times we have been through, we are the subject to so much suspicion. Now you see, when we go to play in Mumbai, we shall be treated with the same suspicion again for all this.” Coach Qayoom’s words reflected upon not Rasool entirely.

Small town. Indifferent circumstances. Huge dreams. He is not just a talented young man equipped with impressive cricketing abilities. He is much more. And beyond. He is what Kashmir is. He represents. He reflects. Ever since India’s independence in 1947, Kashmir has been the centre of all the worry. Continuous intrusions-invasions by various national and international forces combined with poor social-political infrastructure & lack of proper administrative concern have only lightened the fire further. Also, the cold shiver you feel the moment you hear “Kashmir”, the continuous media allegations of the youth from the hills preferring guns to roses and bombs over proses have only worsened the case of the beautiful valley.

What do we forget? We forget that dreams know no bounds or place or politics.

That is where my friends, among all the ruins, the ashes, the blood, the cries, the trials & tensions, someone picked up a ball and a bat and dared to dream. And dream big. And here he is.

Small town boys and their stories are always fairytalesque. Just because they would have heard more bleak backtalks than the encouraging ones. Beating odds against yourself and yet thriving to succeed is always sweet. It requires determination, love for the profession, self confidence and more importantly deaf ears to all those dismaying people. In that way, Rasool is already a hero. We have always heard assassinations, assaults, wars, border issues, gun shots and explosions with Kashmir. Now for a change, a cricketer. From Kashmir. This what you call a fairytale.

Maybe its Kashmir’s reminder of being there after all these. Letting us know that there is more; much more to Kashmir. Inspiring its misguided youth with a lionheart.

That is why, Ladies & Gentlemen, Parvez Rasool is special. And the Parvez Rasool story, even more.