Images of Sarfaraz Khan’s father, Naushad, crying inconsolably after kissing his son’s Test cap have now melted cricketing hearts worldwide.
Naushad, a cricket coach, had sacrificed a lot to see his son play for India only to face rejection over and over again even as Sarfaraz continued his astounding run-making spree in India’s domestic cricket.
So when Sarfaraz, 26, finally became a Test player on Thursday, Naushad, whose own dream of playing for India was shattered in his teens, couldn’t hold back the tears.
Then, remarkably, even England failed to stop the flow of runs from his son’s bat as Sarfaraz nonchalantly drove, cut, pulled and swept the bowlers before an unfortunate run-out cut short his innings.
But his ‘Bazball’-style 66-ball 62 on Test debut against the inventors of Bazball validated his father’s belief in him. It also put serious question marks over India’s selectors who kept ignoring him.
It was not just Naushad and his family that had gone through the whole gamut of emotion on Thursday.
A Dubai resident, Shyam Bhatia, was also overwhelmed with emotion after the bulky Mumbai batter silenced his detractors with his memorable knock on Test debut.
Bhatia, Dubai’s well-known cricket promoter, had gifted Sarfaraz a cricket kit when he was only 14 — two years after he hit the headlines as a child prodigy in Mumbai by breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record with a knock of 439 in a school cricket match.
“I know the family for a long time, his father Naushad even played club cricket here in Dubai and Sharjah,” Bhatia recalled.
“So after he broke Sachin’s school cricket record in Mumbai, his father called me and asked me to meet his son. I couldn’t meet them immediately, but I invited them to my book launch at the Cricket Club of India.
“Naushad came with Sarfaraz, he was very small then. That was the first time I met them.”
At the book launch, the young Sarfaraz couldn’t hide his excitement when he saw Sunil Gavaskar.
“I knew what he wanted when I saw his face, so I said, ‘Okay, come, I will introduce you to Sunil.’ So Sunil met him and encouraged him to keep playing well.”
From that day, Bhatia also started to support Sarfaraz in his cricket journey.
“I used to send them cricket kits. His younger brother, Musheer Khan, is also a very good player. He is now playing for the Indian under-19 team. I have supported both brothers for a long time with cricket kits. I also sponsored a cricket trip for them to the UK,” Bhatia said.
It’s been 20 years since the Dubai-based Indian businessman started to support cricket at the grassroots level in India as well as in many other countries like Ukraine, Japan, Zimbabwe and Uganda.
“This is the first time that a player I backed has made India debut. So it’s a very emotional moment for me,” he said.
“I remember when I met him for the first time at the book launch in Mumbai, I asked him about his favourite cricketer. He said AB de Villiers.
“Yesterday, he was playing like AB, fearless, aggressive and always looking for a scoring opportunity.
“His batting proved that the selectors were wrong. They should have picked him at least two years ago. But better late than never.”