Major
T20I Star
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2013
- Runs
- 31,322
- Post of the Week
- 7
A living Legend Outside of Red House
It was a hot sunny Thursday, as we met up with a friend of ours who lived at the Red house. We parked our car outside red house, and rested by the side of the car while discussing whether to go play some Call of duty at the local gaming lounge.
As we wasted time and whined about petty stuff, we noticed a flock of molvis going house by house and preaching their ideas to every household member whose door bell they rang. They were still quite away from us.
We didn’t want to be approached by the preachers, especially today, when we just wanted to waste some time here and there and go home. We thought by the time they had approached towards red house, we would be long gone.
It was a Thursday anyways, so we had to kill time somehow, so phone browsing started.
The preachers were pacing up, and were almost near us, but there were still 1 or 2 more houses whose door bells had to be ringed before we were targeted. It was still too early to leave, so to dodge the bullet, we had to change the plans. We thought that as soon as they headed towards us, we would hide inside red house till the time they ringed our door bell and left.
Minutes passed by without any notice, and the group was approaching us. My friend made the signal, but the red house fellow for some reason didn’t want to take us inside.
Oh well, time to bite the bullet.
There were about five, eight, ten hands that came towards us to be greeted. The hands wouldn’t stop coming, until we shook the last hand of this very aged fellow who wore a nice double pocketed Shalwar Kameez, upon it a very fancy looking vest coat, with a white Pagar tied on his head which matched his beard.
For some odd reason, we felt special with the way everyone greeted us. Probably for the first time ever we were being given some importance.
But I wasn’t really too bothered to meet any of them. While my friends met them properly, I still had my back rested on my car as I shook hands with an improper body language.
As the White Pagar wallay uncle shook our hands, he introduced himself with a wide grin on his face, “Hello young fellows, I’m an ex Pakistani Cricketer, Saeed Ahmed, who has come to your neighborhood to preach our religion. I left behind the lavish life of England for this mission and…………………….”
Wait; did this guy mentioned himself as an ex-Pakistani Cricketer? I asked for his name again, and he repeated, “Yes my name is Saeed Ahmed who played at 1 down for Pakistan”. The name Saeed Ahmed sounded very familiar. Though we were not born at the time when he played, but often when I read past accounts of cricket happenings, or Wisden Cricket Articles, Saeed Ahmed was a name that I often saw, and his name was often written on score cards where I would pull out the scores and records of the more famous batsmen, Hanif Mohammad.
Suddenly, I had to change my body language, because now we had a Pakistani Legend standing infront of us in a very modest and humble manner. This was a guy whose name we often read in cricket related articles. This was the name we often saw on score cards while we searched for Hanif Mohammad, Fazal Mehmood, Abdul Kardar. I’ve always held respect for a cricketer, but to meet an ex-cricketer from the 60s was a unique moment. 60’s cricketers were those cricketers who played cricket for the love of their country and not for the money, because at that time there was no money involved in the game; it was patriotism that motivated these guys to play cricket.
As I stood more upfront, Saeed Saab even took out his passport to show us who he was, at the first glance I noticed the word Jullundar, and for me that was enough to know that this guy was indeed a legit person.
As Saeed Saab finished introducing himself, he allowed the other young molvi to speak.
This young molvi was probably in his later end of the 20s, short beard, wore a white praying cap. He looked as if he was a newly trained one, as he spoke in a robotic manner; he spoke as if he had done a ratta on the whole islamic subject.
The robotic molvi told us about the new mosque that had been built and how they were gathering everyone to start coming into the new mosque and so on.
After he had finish and the group was about to leave, I asked Saeed Saab if he still watched cricket.
Suddenly, this sentence of mine created a spark inside Saaed Saab. His whole body language changed, his voice became more energetic. “Ohhh, you’re asking I watch cricket? Cricket is my life; I have always watched the game and never missed a single match”
Being a diehard Misbah fan, I really wanted to know what the cricketers of the past generation hold the view about the often criticized Misbah ul haq.
I asked, “so what do you think about the current Test Captain Misbah Ul Haq, is he…..….”
Before I could even finish my sentence, Saaed Saab bursted “He is the best Kaptaan I have ever seen. One of the greatest test Kaptaan, what a marvelous player he is. It brings me utter shame when I see people criticize him.”
Saeed saab become more energetic, suddenly the spark inside Saeed Saab had ignited. Every time he praised the current Test Captain, he motioned his index finger upward, telling us that Misbah was the best. He then became very critical of the recent Pakistani team which played in the recently held World T20 2016 in India.
With my Cricket talk, Saaed Saab had now emerged as a completely different man. There was that spark in his eye that could be noticed, there was that life in his body that could be told. You could still tell that even after taking up religion over other aspects of life, cricket was still part of him; this guy had genuinely represented our country at a time when not even a dime was given for playing for Pakistan.
Saeed Saab had to leave, but he made us promise to come to the mosque and listen to what they would be saying at the Tableegh after the Maghreb Prayer.
Before he left with his group, we sheepishly asked Saeed Saab if we could get a picture taken with him; knowing the fact that he was religious and may option out. But he said why not with his bright smile.
After Saeed Saab and his group left, we all three autonomously agreed that we would attend the tableegh after Maghrib. Not that we really cared or were interested in the religious stuff, but because of Saeed Saab. We already saw a glimpse of a joyful cricketer Saaed Ahmed, I especially, wanted to see more off it. Wanted to know more about what cricket was like in the 60s; wanted to share the atmosphere with an ex-Pakistani cricketer.
I was a bit late at reaching the newly built mosque, but not too late. I saw a small group of people seated on the carpeted prayer mats, who listened carefully to the young robot molvi who was giving out a boring speech, again another ratta. I saw an empty space, sat down legs folded. I paid little attention to what the young molvi said and tried to search for Saeed Saab in the gathering. At first I thought he had ditched us, but then I saw him seated in a small arm chair, seated comfortably and dozing off every now and then.
The tableegh finally ended after twenty to thirty minutes, the few people who had come, all left. I quickly approached towards Saeed Saab and greeted him. Suddenly, the grim and sleepy looking Saeed Saab again had a wide smile on his face, probably we were about to have more cricket talk. During this moment I was surprised how no one else had even bothered to come meet this personality or even shake his hand, all had left quietly.
Suddenly one of the molvi saab bought an arm chair for me. During this time my friends arrived from behind and greeted Saeed Saab who kept on smiling and greeting, with the molvi saab bringing arm chairs for them as well.
Basically as I was there only to discuss cricket, I asked Saaed Saab about how the cricket was back then and how different it was from today’s game.
Saaed Saab with the big smile on his face, went on to tell us how in his playing days players were given only rs: 25 per match, and that money barely covered their costs. He told us how today’s players were lucky to be earning millions of rupees, when back then it was little about the money more about the patriotism and pride of representing your country at the international level.
He recalled how once his team mate bought him the news about the opportunity to earn Rs: 500 from this particular match, and how excited and overjoyed they were to play that particular match and earn just Rs: 500 out of it.
I asked him about the travelling of those days, to which he described how they would travel on the ships, and while on the West Indies tour, they would had to get on the banana boats to travel further.
He went on about how he played in the Lancashire leagues for the Nelson Cricket Club, but he never really enjoyed the matches there because of the conditions which suited more to the bowler, and made it difficult for the batsmen to play against. He told us proudly, that his brother Younis Ahmed played for Surrey Cricket club for 17 years.
After about forty minutes later, we decided it was time to leave, as we asked for Saaed Saab’s permission to leave, he asked us in a jolly manner not to leave just yet. Saeed Saab got off his chair and walked to an adjacent room, and after five minutes, he returned with another fellow who bought a table and a plate full of dry fruits for us.
Suddenly we became slightly embarrassed of Saaed Saabs very humble manner. We resisted, but he insisted us to take the dry fruits as he had bought them for us.
As we munched off the sweet rewari, Saaed Saab asked me what I thought about the current situation in Pakistan Cricket, whether Shahid Afridi had genuinely retired or not.
At first I was a bit surprised to be asked about my views on cricket by an Ex-Pakistani cricketer himself. But then I exclaimed that for now they would be keeping Afridi away from cricket, and maybe after 5-6 months he would be back in the team, because he is very influential at the moment. To this SaeedSaab agreed.
As we finished off the dry fruits, and got calls from home, it was time to leave.
We again asked for Saaed Saab’s permission, to which Saeed Saab stood up and greeted us cheerfully. Then as we were about to walk off, Saeed Saabsaid that he would greet us off till the front of the mosque. We asked Saeed Saab that it was fine and he didn’t need to, but he insisted.
As we walked till the exit of the mosque, Saeed Saab also paced with us. In fact, I noticed he was pacing much faster than us without any help or using his hands to hold on for support.
This person was in his 70s, but the way he walked without any need of support showed that he was indeed an ex Pakistani Cricketer.
As we reached the exit of the mosque and greeted off Saeed Saab one last time, Saaed Saab said with a jolly looking expression that how he will always cherish this moment he had with us.
Upon hearing that last sentence, I felt pleased and I as well will always cherish the moment we had with Saeed Ahmed the ex Pakistani Cricketer.
It was a hot sunny Thursday, as we met up with a friend of ours who lived at the Red house. We parked our car outside red house, and rested by the side of the car while discussing whether to go play some Call of duty at the local gaming lounge.
As we wasted time and whined about petty stuff, we noticed a flock of molvis going house by house and preaching their ideas to every household member whose door bell they rang. They were still quite away from us.
We didn’t want to be approached by the preachers, especially today, when we just wanted to waste some time here and there and go home. We thought by the time they had approached towards red house, we would be long gone.
It was a Thursday anyways, so we had to kill time somehow, so phone browsing started.
The preachers were pacing up, and were almost near us, but there were still 1 or 2 more houses whose door bells had to be ringed before we were targeted. It was still too early to leave, so to dodge the bullet, we had to change the plans. We thought that as soon as they headed towards us, we would hide inside red house till the time they ringed our door bell and left.
Minutes passed by without any notice, and the group was approaching us. My friend made the signal, but the red house fellow for some reason didn’t want to take us inside.
Oh well, time to bite the bullet.
There were about five, eight, ten hands that came towards us to be greeted. The hands wouldn’t stop coming, until we shook the last hand of this very aged fellow who wore a nice double pocketed Shalwar Kameez, upon it a very fancy looking vest coat, with a white Pagar tied on his head which matched his beard.
For some odd reason, we felt special with the way everyone greeted us. Probably for the first time ever we were being given some importance.
But I wasn’t really too bothered to meet any of them. While my friends met them properly, I still had my back rested on my car as I shook hands with an improper body language.
As the White Pagar wallay uncle shook our hands, he introduced himself with a wide grin on his face, “Hello young fellows, I’m an ex Pakistani Cricketer, Saeed Ahmed, who has come to your neighborhood to preach our religion. I left behind the lavish life of England for this mission and…………………….”
Wait; did this guy mentioned himself as an ex-Pakistani Cricketer? I asked for his name again, and he repeated, “Yes my name is Saeed Ahmed who played at 1 down for Pakistan”. The name Saeed Ahmed sounded very familiar. Though we were not born at the time when he played, but often when I read past accounts of cricket happenings, or Wisden Cricket Articles, Saeed Ahmed was a name that I often saw, and his name was often written on score cards where I would pull out the scores and records of the more famous batsmen, Hanif Mohammad.
Suddenly, I had to change my body language, because now we had a Pakistani Legend standing infront of us in a very modest and humble manner. This was a guy whose name we often read in cricket related articles. This was the name we often saw on score cards while we searched for Hanif Mohammad, Fazal Mehmood, Abdul Kardar. I’ve always held respect for a cricketer, but to meet an ex-cricketer from the 60s was a unique moment. 60’s cricketers were those cricketers who played cricket for the love of their country and not for the money, because at that time there was no money involved in the game; it was patriotism that motivated these guys to play cricket.
As I stood more upfront, Saeed Saab even took out his passport to show us who he was, at the first glance I noticed the word Jullundar, and for me that was enough to know that this guy was indeed a legit person.
As Saeed Saab finished introducing himself, he allowed the other young molvi to speak.
This young molvi was probably in his later end of the 20s, short beard, wore a white praying cap. He looked as if he was a newly trained one, as he spoke in a robotic manner; he spoke as if he had done a ratta on the whole islamic subject.
The robotic molvi told us about the new mosque that had been built and how they were gathering everyone to start coming into the new mosque and so on.
After he had finish and the group was about to leave, I asked Saeed Saab if he still watched cricket.
Suddenly, this sentence of mine created a spark inside Saaed Saab. His whole body language changed, his voice became more energetic. “Ohhh, you’re asking I watch cricket? Cricket is my life; I have always watched the game and never missed a single match”
Being a diehard Misbah fan, I really wanted to know what the cricketers of the past generation hold the view about the often criticized Misbah ul haq.
I asked, “so what do you think about the current Test Captain Misbah Ul Haq, is he…..….”
Before I could even finish my sentence, Saaed Saab bursted “He is the best Kaptaan I have ever seen. One of the greatest test Kaptaan, what a marvelous player he is. It brings me utter shame when I see people criticize him.”
Saeed saab become more energetic, suddenly the spark inside Saeed Saab had ignited. Every time he praised the current Test Captain, he motioned his index finger upward, telling us that Misbah was the best. He then became very critical of the recent Pakistani team which played in the recently held World T20 2016 in India.
With my Cricket talk, Saaed Saab had now emerged as a completely different man. There was that spark in his eye that could be noticed, there was that life in his body that could be told. You could still tell that even after taking up religion over other aspects of life, cricket was still part of him; this guy had genuinely represented our country at a time when not even a dime was given for playing for Pakistan.
Saeed Saab had to leave, but he made us promise to come to the mosque and listen to what they would be saying at the Tableegh after the Maghreb Prayer.
Before he left with his group, we sheepishly asked Saeed Saab if we could get a picture taken with him; knowing the fact that he was religious and may option out. But he said why not with his bright smile.
After Saeed Saab and his group left, we all three autonomously agreed that we would attend the tableegh after Maghrib. Not that we really cared or were interested in the religious stuff, but because of Saeed Saab. We already saw a glimpse of a joyful cricketer Saaed Ahmed, I especially, wanted to see more off it. Wanted to know more about what cricket was like in the 60s; wanted to share the atmosphere with an ex-Pakistani cricketer.
I was a bit late at reaching the newly built mosque, but not too late. I saw a small group of people seated on the carpeted prayer mats, who listened carefully to the young robot molvi who was giving out a boring speech, again another ratta. I saw an empty space, sat down legs folded. I paid little attention to what the young molvi said and tried to search for Saeed Saab in the gathering. At first I thought he had ditched us, but then I saw him seated in a small arm chair, seated comfortably and dozing off every now and then.
The tableegh finally ended after twenty to thirty minutes, the few people who had come, all left. I quickly approached towards Saeed Saab and greeted him. Suddenly, the grim and sleepy looking Saeed Saab again had a wide smile on his face, probably we were about to have more cricket talk. During this moment I was surprised how no one else had even bothered to come meet this personality or even shake his hand, all had left quietly.
Suddenly one of the molvi saab bought an arm chair for me. During this time my friends arrived from behind and greeted Saeed Saab who kept on smiling and greeting, with the molvi saab bringing arm chairs for them as well.
Basically as I was there only to discuss cricket, I asked Saaed Saab about how the cricket was back then and how different it was from today’s game.
Saaed Saab with the big smile on his face, went on to tell us how in his playing days players were given only rs: 25 per match, and that money barely covered their costs. He told us how today’s players were lucky to be earning millions of rupees, when back then it was little about the money more about the patriotism and pride of representing your country at the international level.
He recalled how once his team mate bought him the news about the opportunity to earn Rs: 500 from this particular match, and how excited and overjoyed they were to play that particular match and earn just Rs: 500 out of it.
I asked him about the travelling of those days, to which he described how they would travel on the ships, and while on the West Indies tour, they would had to get on the banana boats to travel further.
He went on about how he played in the Lancashire leagues for the Nelson Cricket Club, but he never really enjoyed the matches there because of the conditions which suited more to the bowler, and made it difficult for the batsmen to play against. He told us proudly, that his brother Younis Ahmed played for Surrey Cricket club for 17 years.
After about forty minutes later, we decided it was time to leave, as we asked for Saaed Saab’s permission to leave, he asked us in a jolly manner not to leave just yet. Saeed Saab got off his chair and walked to an adjacent room, and after five minutes, he returned with another fellow who bought a table and a plate full of dry fruits for us.
Suddenly we became slightly embarrassed of Saaed Saabs very humble manner. We resisted, but he insisted us to take the dry fruits as he had bought them for us.
As we munched off the sweet rewari, Saaed Saab asked me what I thought about the current situation in Pakistan Cricket, whether Shahid Afridi had genuinely retired or not.
At first I was a bit surprised to be asked about my views on cricket by an Ex-Pakistani cricketer himself. But then I exclaimed that for now they would be keeping Afridi away from cricket, and maybe after 5-6 months he would be back in the team, because he is very influential at the moment. To this SaeedSaab agreed.
As we finished off the dry fruits, and got calls from home, it was time to leave.
We again asked for Saaed Saab’s permission, to which Saeed Saab stood up and greeted us cheerfully. Then as we were about to walk off, Saeed Saabsaid that he would greet us off till the front of the mosque. We asked Saeed Saab that it was fine and he didn’t need to, but he insisted.
As we walked till the exit of the mosque, Saeed Saab also paced with us. In fact, I noticed he was pacing much faster than us without any help or using his hands to hold on for support.
This person was in his 70s, but the way he walked without any need of support showed that he was indeed an ex Pakistani Cricketer.
As we reached the exit of the mosque and greeted off Saeed Saab one last time, Saaed Saab said with a jolly looking expression that how he will always cherish this moment he had with us.
Upon hearing that last sentence, I felt pleased and I as well will always cherish the moment we had with Saeed Ahmed the ex Pakistani Cricketer.
)
