Published: Feb 07, 2017, 07:30 AM (IST)
Edited: Feb 07, 2017, 01:03 PM (IST)
“No, I am not aware that I broke Chris Gayle’s record,” laughed Abdul Malek after knowing that he achieved a Gaylesque feat. “It was not like I had thought of scoring this much. It just went out to bat and continued with my rhythm.” The world witnessed Gayle’s mayhem on April 23, 2013, he slammed 175 not out for Royal Challengers Bangalore. In a similar carnage, Malek slammed an unbeaten 180 from 71 balls earlier this month, against New Zealand. Malek too is an aggressive opener like Gayle, the difference being sight. Gayle watches it till the last moment before slamming it while Malek is partially blind.
The opening batsman of the Bangladesh’s Blind Team, Malek comes under the B2 category of blind cricketers (partially blind). On February 3, 2016, at MIG Club in Bandra, Malek’s 180 not out against New Zealand, included 33 boundaries and helped Bangladesh post 330 for 2. Bangladesh, who senior side was tormented by the Kiwis a few weeks back (losing all their Tests, ODIs and T20Is), got their sweet revenge when their blind team downed New Zealand by 90 runs in the World Cup game.
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The record breaker met me after their match against England at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, which they lost after the English side chased down 215. The moment he got to know that I want to interview him, Malek looked a bit excited but believe me, I was more. He welcomed me while having lunch on the stairs of the stadium and meanwhile was getting teased by his teammates. His teammates were teasing him by asking for a selfie or an autograph. To avoid the distraction, Malek said that we will talk in the upstairs.
Before me starting the conversation, Malek asked me whether I knew Bengali or not. I replied by saying “Not everything in Bengali but a bit.” He did not mind that and said we can do it with the mixture of Bengali, broken Hindi, English and Hinglish (a mix of Hindi and English) as well.
Malek was born with normal eyesight. In 2008, his vision started fading. “I was in my first year of Higher Secondary Education, my age was probably 17 or 18 and from there on, slowly my vision began getting low,” said Malek, “Me and my family were very disappointed. And I did not take much time to tell my family about my eye problem. It was a tough period for me and my family, not because of my vision problem but also I lost my father in the same year. But my maternal uncle takes care of the entire family.”
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Malek was upbeat talking about his family and revealed: t “I am the eldest in my family among two brothers and a sister.” Asking about whether his brothers also plays cricket or not, Malek denied it and said, “No, not in cricket. Both are brilliant in their studies and will do something through their education.”
Malek had not played cricket at any level before he started losing his vision and he got to know about Blind Cricket in 2010. “Actually, from 2010 I started playing Blind cricket and before that, I never knew about its existence. I had played tape/tennis ball cricket before but never played at any level.”
The conversation made him dive into his past and Malek could not help his emotions. Despite the tragedy with his vision, Malek spoke of the pride attached to playing for nation.
“I never thought that I would represent Bangladesh team at this level and will sing the national anthem Amar Shonar Bangla. I never thought that I would get to wear this Bangladesh jersey. Nothing can be better than this.”
Blind cricketers do not earn much and according to Malek, earning does not bother them. “We do not earn much and all we earn is from these tournaments. But if we win this tournament then I can hope something. Also, the team spirit among ourselves is the biggest motivation for us. Our coach is a great, he is like a guardian to us and his efforts are lot more than ours. And things like money do not matter when we enter the field. Yes it does matter when we are outside the field but after wearing the jersey and singing the national anthem, nothing matters and nothing can come in our way.”
Malek was also the part of Bangladesh team in the 2016 Asia Cup, where Bangladesh lost to India in the finals at Kochi. Bangladesh are currently among the top three teams in the points table with five wins from seven games. Their two defeats came against India and England. And looking at the way they are performing, Malek believes that his team will surely make it to the finals. “Inshallah, we will try our best but it will be a very tough competition as all the Asian teams are expected to make it to the finals.”
Further Malek revealed his favourite cricketer by naming Mashrafe Mortaza. “Mortaza is my favourite. I know him personally. He is a very good and honest person,” added Malek. It is a fact that Bangladeshi players are very close to their fans. Asking about the reason behind this, Malek continued, “Actually Mashrafe is very friendly and he is my younger brother’s friend.” Meanwhile he stopped me and said in a loud voice, “my second favourite is India’s Virat Kohli. I love him.”
Malek then spoke about emotional fans of Bangladesh and also said that Indians are like brothers. “Our fans are very emotional and aggressive too. Same goes with Indian fans as well. But Indians are always like our friend and brother. Indian people are great. True, that there has been some heated moments between the fans of both the nations but such things does not matter and this is fun. Bangladesh is always a friend of India and everyone knows how they helped us in 1971. And I love India and its people. Indians are very friendly to us. We all team members are loving India and their people.”
From five matches so far, Malek has scored 412 runs, which includes a hundred and three fifties at at an excellent average of 103. He is currently the third highest run-getter of the tournament after Suranga Sampath (B3)of Sri Lanka (684 runs) and Kevin Douglas (517) — captain of West Indies.
With four more league matches to go, Malek aims to tops the chart.
