Defying odds at home to turning heads on the roads - Jammu and Kashmir’s journey of self-belief

Defying odds at home to turning heads on the roads - Jammu and Kashmir’s journey of self-belief

no photo

Look at the 'most runs' chart in the Ranji Trophy this season and you will have to cross past 32 names to find Abdul Samad. And at a distant 46th sits Suryansh Raina. The 29th place in the bowling chart is occupied by Umar Nazir, with Mohammed Mudhasir sitting close to his younger colleague.

The quartet doesn’t have mind-boggling numbers to their names but all added a brick each to what has been a fine journey for Jammu & Kashmir in this year’s Ranji Trophy. As cliched as it may sound, it has truly been a journey of hard work, belief and defying the odds on the go. Take this for example - inclement weather in Jammu resulted in two drawn games, against Assam and Chhattisgarh, but nothing has been able to stop them from rolling down the marker and pinning down more-fancied opponents with better infrastructure and exposure to win all of their away games.

While the team from the newest Union Territory of the country is itself a great story, the context makes it spine-chilling. Even with a fortnight to go for the Indian domestic season, the “state”, which has been in lockdown for close to six months now due to controversial abrogation of Article 370 in the valley, didn’t have any idea if they can actually send a team for the premier domestic cricket competition in India. Their cricketers had to pull out of the Vizzy Trophy and mentor Irfan Pathan had to arrange a make-shift camp in Baroda to prepare them for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. That they eventually could and even managed to host three games at the Gandhi Memorial Science College Ground in Jammu was down to stars aligning for them just at the right time.

Nothing has been easy for them as far as association politics go either. In 2012, two senior JKCA officials were accused of embezzlement of funds and the case took far too long to be solved as two provincial committees were formed to manage the state cricket. Even that mired into controversy when J&K High Court issued notices to then JKCA president Farooq Abdullah and chairman Aslam Goni for illegal means to form the committee. Years have passed in between but the problem inside the boardroom still echoes the forgettable days of the past.

That, however, mattered for little as the cricket team, under the inspiring leadership of Parvez Rasool, put up a show in 2019-20 and showed everyone what strong zeal and belief can do to a group of individuals. Beating last year’s Quarter-finalist Uttarakhand might just be a formality, considering the Unmukt Chand-led team had faced other plate teams on their way to the knock-outs last year, but beating Maharashtra by 54 runs in Pune was where the fun started. 

The stand-out feature of the win was the way they strung together and ensured a team effort took them over the line - Ahmed Banday and tail-ender Abid Mushtaq contributed with the bat in the first innings, while Umar Nazir Mir, Mohammed Mudhasir, and Mushtaq took charge of the ball to bundle the hosts out for a paltry 109. Suryansh Raina and Abdul Samad’s half-centuries in the second dig shut the door out on the face of Maharashtra before Mudhasir and Mir completed the formalities. The win surely energized Jammu and Kashmir, and giving a reality check to our pre-season predictions, the team dished out wins against Jharkhand and Services before steamrolling Odisha on the final day. 

Not only have they ensured a fairytale run, but surely have also ignited a few more boys and girls to pick up the wood. Abdul Samad’s IPL selection on the back of former Mumbai Indians teenage sensation Rasikh Salam’s ban due to age-fudging acted as a source of hopefulness for them. However, it was not a sickly sweet storyline a few years ago, as, back then, a cricketer even breaking into the North Zone team was a big deal. Surely it didn’t help that North Zone had some of the stalwarts of Indian cricket at the turn of the new millennium with the likes of Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Mithun Manhas, and Gautam Gambhir forming the core. 

But when the chance beckoned in 2001 with Nehra withdrawing from the game against South Zone following the death of his cousin, a pacer from the Valley Surinder Singh Bagal was called upon, and he instantly impressed with five wickets in the first innings on a flat Vijayawada deck. That gathered praise for him from the national selectors Madan Lal and Ashok Malhotra and he was fast-tracked to play in the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy under Sachin Tendulkar and later for Board President’s XI against the touring Australia and England teams. But once Bagal suffered a shoulder injury, it took him back to square one and a dream was quashed. 

In fact, it was just like former J & K coach Abdul Qayoom, who flattered to deceive after making his List A debut for Wills XI against Bombay in the final of the Wills Trophy. The North Zone team had the pacers like Kapil Dev, Manoj Prabhakar, Chetan Sharma, Vivek Razdan, Atul Wassan and Sanjeev Sharma during his time, hence you could hardly fault Qayoom for not living to the colossal expectations that comes from being a cricketer from Kashmir - a close-knit community which celebrates each other’s success like it is their own. Until Parvez Rasool turned heads and made his debut for India, Qayoom was the biggest cricket star coming from the beautiful laidback territory and one of their biggest disappointments too.

However, the smile is back now to act as a balm - albeit a little - to their struggles in the last six months. At the time of despair, it might become their biggest source of happiness that their cricketers have broken new grounds, ensured that they have been competitive enough to break the stereotypes and now, are sitting close to a QF spot. From now on, it will be one step at a time.

Get updates! Follow us on

Open all