A tale extraordinaire - Parvez Rasool

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.