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Haseeb Hameed recalls meeting Sachin Tendulkar, watching Tests from stands

Haseeb Hameed, who became England’s youngest ever opener in Tests at Rajkot late last year, has returned home with memories to cherish for life: his meeting with batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, speaking to Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja in Gujarati language, and his experience of interacting with frenzied Indian cricket fans are among the few.

Haseeb Hameed met maestro Sachin Tendulkar © IANS
Haseeb Hameed met maestro Sachin Tendulkar © IANS

Haseeb Hameed, who became England’s youngest ever opener in Tests at Rajkot late last year, has returned home with memories to cherish for life: his meeting with batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, speaking to Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja in Gujarati language, and his experience of interacting with frenzied Indian cricket fans are among the few. Hameed impressed one and all with his grittiness and water-tight technique in the few Tests he played on England’s first leg of the India tour 2016-17, but even more when he returned post a surgery on his finger to cheer for his team from the stands.

And this is where it all began. Roaming around Mumbai with his family, Hameed landed up outside the door of Tendulkar’s plush home in Bandra. The Little Master was informed about Hameed’s presence outside his house, as the security guards identified the young English batting prodigy. Hameed recalls, “I was just outside his house with my family. The security guys recognised me as I was admiring it, and it turned out Sachin was in. They must have told him I was outside because next thing we were invited in.” Hameed meeting Tendulkar was one of the most memorable moments for the England cricketer on the tour.

FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs England, 1st ODI at Pune

“He made me a cup of tea. We had a nice cake as well. He was very welcoming and that spoke volumes of the man,’ Hameed recalled.

The two spoke at lengths about cricket and as always, Tendulkar had crucial advice for the 20-year-old England opener. “We spoke about a lot of things, but mostly batting, for a good half-hour, and I had a lot of questions for him. Obviously, there was a moment when I thought, ‘I’m talking to Sachin Tendulkar’. But he answered brilliantly, and the two things that stood out from our chat were his attention to detail and passion for the game,” he said.

 

“He told me that while you retain that passion for the game, you will always find a way of succeeding in it. He was so big on how you need to enjoy it. People often say, ‘Remember why you started playing’ and he is clearly a believer in that. Sometimes, because of the pressures of playing international cricket, you can lose it. That was one of his messages. Hopefully I can take that forward with me,” he recalled.

Interestingly, Hameed was conferred with the tag ‘Little Master’ nickname at the Farnworth Social Circle, where he played his cricket in Bolton.

When he returned from UK after undergoing the surgery, Hameed met Virat Kohli and Jadeja, the two men who edged out his team in the five-Test series. “There was lots of cricket chat, the badgers that we are,” revealed Hameed on his chat with Jadeja.

Hameed was spotted in the stands where cricketer’s families are slated to sit, alongside father Ismail, mother Najma and brothers Nuaman and Safwaan. This is when he had his interactions with the Indian cricket fans.

He said, “Cricket in India is just different; in terms of the passion, the fans and the stardom that the players get. Sometimes you get shot up to a level that you could not imagine over here and on a couple of occasions I got in situations in which it was happening to me. Firstly, we were leaving the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. I stopped to do an interview and within seconds there was a good 200 to 300 people stood there. Someone asked for a selfie, and I was more than happy to do it. Suddenly, everyone seemed to want one. I was a little bit shocked. It happened again in Chennai after a day’s play when I was waiting for my Uber. But, to be honest, I loved every minute of it.”

“One of the things I found amazing was the support from both sets of fans. Of course, India still has a special place in my heart, but for me going out there and performing for England is what dreams are made of. In Test cricket playing away, in India, is the ultimate, apart from the Ashes,” he added.

 

Hameed has been nominated for the Young Sportsperson of the Year Award at the Lycamobile British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards, and there is a sense of pride in the young cricketer over what he has achieved.

He said, “It means a lot to me that I am representing a community within England and hopefully I can go on and do great things for the country. I am very aware of the fact that a lot of focus is placed on other things in Asian families, and maybe people don’t see sport, or cricket in particular, as providing an opportunity to earn a living or have a career. But I am very keen to set an example of what can be done.”

“I was helped from a young age by parents who led me towards following the country of my birth. Although I had a lot of role models from India, and loved the way they played, from such a young age it was so simple for me: I just wanted to play cricket for England,” he said.

 

Hameed’s father Ismail was there throughout his trip to India, even accompanying him to Tendulkar’s house. He has worked extremely hard on Hameed to make him a Test cricketer, and it was one of the moments to cheer for life when the England batsman scored a fifty on debut. Hameed recalled, “It’s fair to say he’d waited a long time for that day. There are still a lot of dreams I can fulfill for him, hopefully, but in that moment he said he had flashbacks of all we had been through to get there. That was what made him quite emotional. People who know us appreciate exactly how many sacrifices he has made, how much time he has actually spent working hard to get me where I am. Since I’ve been back to Bolton, people have first congratulated me and then said, ‘It’s mainly down to this man here’.”

Not surprisingly, it was Ismail who went to England coach Trevor Bayliss suggesting him to strap up Hameed’s injured hand after Indian bowlers Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami’s delivered severe blows.

X-rays showed Hameed needed to get a metal plate inserted after a displacement fracture. “Dad played in an era when you had no helmets and you still had to face fast bowlers and get on with it. That’s been passed down to me. He has always told me that to be a great cricketer you have to play through pain. That you can’t be one until you see blood on your face. It is something that has kind of stuck with me,” he said.

Hameed will return to action with England Lions’ tour of Sri Lanka in February. “As a batsman you are never fully satisfied and that’s really important. I wanted to play international cricket as young as possible. I’m hoping to play for a long, long time, and I’m only in one of the formats that I want to play for England in. It’s very much the start, and hopefully I’ve got a long career to look forward to.”

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