There was a moment of time where Pakistan’s cricket team had a certain Rana Naved ul Hasan, who was known for his seam movement and that uncanny ability to take wickets of big and established batters.
The cricketer was most active during the early and mid 2000 period for Pakistan. Which was interesting of course, because during that period of time one saw the times of Rahul Dravid, the great Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble on the one hand while the likes of Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi among the others on the other hand.
And the former Pakistan fast bowler Naved-ul-Hasan recently reminisced about an interesting cricketing moment between the two countries wherein he played under the great Inzamam’s captaincy.
However, the wicket taking bowler did make a bit of a mess especially against that of a great batter on the opposite end. Now, you may wonder what that was? The right arm pacer recalled an intriguing moment during his time in the field back in the 2000s, whilst making an appearance on a chat show in Pakistan.
He would say, ‘I was bowling to Sachin. When I got Sachin out for zero caught behind, it was an obvious dismissal. But the umpire still gave him not out, and Sachin was simply standing there. I aggressively told him, ‘You are such a big player, why are you being dishonest?’ Inzi came to me and said, ‘He is a respected player. You shouldn’t have spoken to him like that. Just go and say sorry to him right now.’
What’s rather interesting is that the fast bowler actually did exactly as his captain had dictated, and it was a very good gesture to walk up to Sachin, who had already departed and apologise to him for the excitement during which he had said a word or rude to him, and the great part of the man we adore that is Tendulkar is that in reply, he said it’s okay, no problems.
These were the times where rivalry between the two countries did exist but seldom did it ever lead to a moment of sheer embitterment.
Wouldn’t you agree? Contemporary sport where India and Pakistan hardly play has been riddled with over the top media hype and players themselves hardly seem the part of the way the sport was with action figures from the yesteryears.