“I don’t have many fans left. Whenever I go out, people don’t ask me about my batting but always say how great a fielder I used to be. But I remind them that I used to bat decently too." Thus spoke one of India's finest former captains and one of the greatest ever modern batsmen who has quietly passed into oblivion. John Woodcock, the celebrated cricket writer, has once said about him: “It’s no use asking an Englishman to bat like Mohammad Azharuddin. It would be like expecting a greyhound to win the Epsom Derby.”
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By the late 80s, Mohammad Azharuddin, the stylish top-order batsman from Hyderabad, was already a phenomenon in India. The country that has already seen the genius of a Gavaskar and a Kapil Dev now had a new hero to worship. And Azhar could do no wrong.
If the world was already rooting for a young Tendulkar, the maverick Mumbaikar who had burst on to the scene, Azhar with his nifty wrist-work and infinite finesse had already eked out a space for him in the cricketing cartography of the subcontinent. If Tendulkar was the butcher destroying bowling attacks, Azhar was the artist with the magic touch.
Brilliant beginnings
After he got a fortuitous breakthrough after Kapil Dev and Sandeep Patil were controversially rested in 1984, Azhar caught the imagination of the cricketing world by scoring three consecutive centuries in his first three Tests after his debut.
He started with 110 against England at Kolkata and followed it up with 105 at Chennai and 122 at Kanpur. In the 1985/86 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup in Australia, he scored a prolific 93 against Pakistan which turned out to be a match-winning innings.
Illustrious career
Azhar's ascent to the hot seat of captaincy has a famous anecdote behind it. Dilip Vengsarkar's team had been routed in the West Indies and K Srikkanth had led the team to a drawn series against Pakistan. But Srikkanth himself had had a nightmarish time with the bat. Raj Singh Dungarpur had then popped the famous question to Azhar which has gone down in cricketing folklore ever since: "Miyaan, captain banoge?" (Brother, you want to be the captain?)
Azhar, the batsman, shone brightly under the added responsibility of captaincy. His 192 against New Zealand in the third Test at Eden Park, Auckland in 1990 was a gem to behold. And when Graham Gooch scored 333 and 123 in the two innings at Lord's in 1990, the Indian captain answered with 121 and 111.
Azhar followed it up with a magnificent 179 in the second Test at Manchester in 1990 and when Gooch later brought his side to India for the 1992/93 tour, the Indian captain was at his imperial best hammering a regal 182 in the first Test at the Eden Gardens.
He was, at one time, India's most successful captain having won 14 Tests and 90 ODIs. Both records have been overtaken by later captains - Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni respectively. The artistry, the ageless grace and the brilliant numbers speak for themselves about Azhar's contributions as a cricketer.
In 1988, Azhar recorded what was back then the fastest ODI century bringing up his hundred off 62 balls against New Zealand. His unbeaten innings of 108 off 65 balls also led to a successful run chase of 279.
By 1986, Azhar had been honoured with the Arjuna award and by 1990, he was the captain of India. By 1991, he has adjudged the Wisden Cricketer of the Year. Azhar then was one of the shining paragons of cricketing brilliance, invincible in glory.
In a sixteen year career that was later marred by endless tabloid gossip and controversy, Azhar scored 22 Test centuries at an average of 45. He represented India in 99 Tests and 334 ODIs and piled up over 15,000 international runs.
And yet, there was much more to him, a side too unpleasant which unfortunately made its way into the public gaze.
Endless gossip
Azhar's on-field heroics were often tarnished by endless media glare and controversies. His second marriage to the Bollywood actress Sangeeta Bijlani was perfect tabloid fodder at that time.
News of Azhar's extra-marital affair when he was married to his first wife Naureen created ripples in the media. Bijlani's own earlier engagement to Salman Khan created the perfect love quadrangle for the media to froth and fume over.
In India, private ownership of media right after the economic liberalisation of the 90s had created the possibility of the round the clock coverage of events and news. To private news channels endlessly competing with each other for the first exclusive coverage of every story, Azhar was the perfect model.
The cricket meets Bollywood story with endless scope for salacious details became an entire nation's wet dream. Endlessly hounded by paparazzi, Azhar saw his life play out in front of him in the midst of the ubiquitous public gaze. There were times he felt that captaining the country was an unenviable task.
Dark clouds of match-fixing
Along with the economic liberalisation, the 90s were earmarked by ceaseless diplomatic tensions between the neighbouring countries of India and Pakistan. The two nations, always on the brink of war, led to intense communal polarisation within the country. The Babri Masjid was destroyed and the early part of the 90s witnessed a series of bomb blasts and riots across the country.
During this time, Azhar as the captain was often called into question for his Muslim identity, with allegations of him letting down his country whenever India played Pakistan. Noted historian Ramachandra Guha in his book A Corner of a Foreign Field has pointed out Azhar's plight as his allegiances were questioned every single day.
Floodgates opened when Manoj Prabhakar was dropped from the 1996 World Cup and he seemed to be on a mission to expose the corrupt practices within the Indian team. Prabhakar hinted at Azhar having asked him to throw his wicket in a match against Pakistan.
When Hansie Cronje got implicated in the match-fixing scandal that shook up cricket at the turn of the century, Azhar's name got dragged in. Deposing before the King Commission of Inquiry in 2000, Cronje said, “On the evening of the third day of the third Test against India in Kanpur, I received a call from Azharuddin".
“He called me to a room in a hotel and introduced me to Mukesh Gupta [a bookie], otherwise known as MK. Azharuddin then departed and left us alone in the room.”
He was found guilty of match-fixing by the CBI and subsequently banned for life by the BCCI and the ICC. The BCCI, however, revoked the ban in 2006 but he remained a pariah in cricketing circles.
He secured electoral victory as the member of Parliament on a Congress ticket from Moradabad in 2009. His personal life remained in the public eye as he got divorced with his Sangeeta Bijlani and his youngest son Ayazuddin was killed in a bike accident in Hyderabad in 2011.
A budding cricketer, Mohammad Ayazuddin was supposed to play an inter-college match at Osmania University just before he met with the fatal accident. After his Suzuki 100-cc superbike skidded off a Hyderabad expressway, the 19-old spent five days in the hospital due to insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain. Ayazuddin's death dealt a heavy blow to Azhar and left him in an almost inconsolable state.
The Andhra Pradesh Court set aside Azhar's life ban in 2012 but he was 49 by that time and too old to play. Moreover, his image in cricketing circles had been forever tarnished by tabloid gossip and the dark clouds of match-fixing. One of the finest Indian cricketers was remembered by then for every reason other than cricket.
Biopic on his life
The life of an Indian cricket captain rocked by extra-marital affairs and match-fixing scandals also becomes perfect fodder for Bollywood cinema. It reportedly took Ekta Kapoor 30 visits to convince Azhar to have a biopic made on his life. Emraan Hashmi was roped in to play the lead role of the former captain and Azhar himself came on board to promote the film.
A titillating teaser with a tag-line ‘Ek Khuda, Do shaadi aur match-fixing’ (One God, two wives and match-fixing) tried to capture the essence of Azhar's life.
“If you see the teaser, you will realize that all the important issues have been covered. All three issues that are attached to my life. I hope after he (Hashmi) does the film people will call him Azhar,” he said, standing in front of a life-size poster of his film.
Hashmi himself has put in hours of net practice trying to bat like Azhar but has admittedly found it difficult to imitate his copybook wristwork.
“He (Azhar) had an unconventional batting style. I was an average cricketer with no footwork. His wrists are like rubber. The first time I tried to play a shot to the on-side I simply couldn’t. I have been practicing it for the past three months, facing 50 overs in a day in the nets. We have to get it right before the shooting starts,” the actor explained.
“The leg glance is one shot I have practiced a lot. I couldn’t master it because I do a lot of weight training. So now I have stopped my weight-training and am focusing on doing yoga. It has to look like Azhar is playing the shot in the movie,” he added.
Sangeeta Bijlani is apparently apprehensive of an unfavourable portrayal in the movie and has reportedly voiced her concerns to Azhar. According to a report in the DNA, a source has revealed, “Sangeeta hasn’t been in touch with Azhar in years... Since the time they divorced in 2010, they have kept out of each other’s way. She fears that the movie will not show her in a positive light.
"By now, it is known that Nargis Fakhri is playing her in the film, so whether she wants it or not, she is connected to the film. Even Sangeeta’s Oye Oye song is part of her portrayal in the film. So, she called Azhar and she voiced her apprehensions.
"And she expressed a desire to watch the film. Since then, they have kept regularly in touch. Azhar informed her that he too hasn’t watched the film and has asked the producers for a trial. But everything is being kept tightly under wraps till the release.”
The Tony D'Souza directed film starring Emran Hashmi, Prachi Desai and Nargis Fakhri will have a worldwide release tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Azhar's appearance on the Extraa Innings show left Dirk Nannes unhappy. If the film is expected to put controversies to rest, the truth would be far from it. One of the finest batsmen the world has ever seen will forever remain destiny's melancholy child.
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