Abdul
ODI Debutant
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2015
- Runs
- 9,212
Coincidences – or fate if you’re a believer – make for a wonderful window into nostalgia.
Until a couple of months ago, Kabir Khan, coaching Habib Bank Limited in Pakistan’s domestic set-up and finally giving his family the time they deserved, wouldn’t even have expected to spend February in Sri Lanka. Now as coach of the Pakistan Women’s team participating in the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2017 in Sri Lanka, when he watched his wards take on the hosts in their opening Super Six game at the Nondescripts Cricket Club ground in Colombo, Sanath Jayasuriya, the former Sri Lanka captain and now chief selector, was on a visit to the club. Both men would have gone about their business unaware of the existence of the other in close vicinity – but history has them linked.
Jayasuriya was Kabir’s first ever One-Day International wicket, taken on debut back in 1994, a stone’s throw away at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground next door. It was one of only 21 wickets Kabir would take in a short international career of four Tests and 10 ODIs.
“What a wicket to have!” the former Pakistan left-arm pacer laughs during an interaction with Wisden India. If there were ever regrets that he couldn’t add to that tally and break into a side with the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, those are long gone.
“People say – I was not good enough to judge myself – they say that because Wasim was there, I could not get a chance. My answer is always that I am one of those lucky people who was selected in that team where Wasim and Waqar and Aaqib (Javed) used to play,” he says. “I was a member of the team at that era when the world’s top fast bowlers used to play and I used to play alongside them. No matter I’ve played 10-11 one-dayers and four Test matches, but sharing the dressing room and getting knowledge of bowling from them, the kick we got playing with them, you cannot [replicate] that. If I was playing in this era, I might have played 50 Test matches, 200 one-dayers, but I couldn’t have said that I have played with Waqar and Wasim.”
Given his background, Kabir is keen to bring pace bowling to the women’s side. The role was an unexpected one he took on in January, considering it “national duty”. He is only now getting to know his team, whose strength is spin. “Attacking bowlers who can get wickets and scare batsmen – the batsmen should think twice about hitting them – those sort of girls we should bring in and strengthen that side of our bowling. Our batting is OK, our bowling and fielding needs variety,” he says.
What Kabir can do with the Pakistan Women’s team will be closely watched. After all, he has earned himself a reputation as a coach for the underdogs, guiding Afghanistan’s phenomenal rise through the ranks to World T20 qualification and ODI status.
“If you look at the time I spent in Afghanistan, it looks like a dream. I don’t know what happened there!” he says, his fondness for the boys evident in his stories of good times and bad. “The passion was a lot, the players wanted to perform, but there were no facilities there. But hats off to the boys, they didn’t care about that.”
During a tournament in Argentina, the board didn’t have money to buy match clothing, he remembers. “So all the team went in one playing trousers and one shirt. We used it for training, washed it and wore it to the game the next day. One of the boys lost his shirt, so I had to give him mine. It shows the dedication of the boys. They never felt that there was something wrong.
“They’ve worked hard and now cricket has opened doors for them, so the money is coming in. I get happy when I see them play PSL and in Bangladesh. I hear some of them are being considered for IPL as well. And they’re driving in cars, wearing designer clothes. It gives me a fatherly pleasure.”
That passion to improve is something he sees in his Pakistan girls as well. “I can see a bit of Afghanistan in these girls. Culturally in Asia, girls are treated as ‘special’,” he says, explaining a society that believes girls need ‘protection’. “But they (Pakistan team) want to prove themselves. For a coach, that is encouraging. You need a bunch of players who want to do something and who want to challenge the world and challenge the coach as well.”
When he says he ‘won’t treat his team as girls’, it’s a promise not to handle them with kid gloves and to break the stereotypes of what women in the subcontinent can and can’t do. “They’ve been treated like girls in the past, we’re not doing that anymore. They are sportspersons and you should treat them as sportspersons, facilities-wise and challenges-wise. Gender shouldn’t be a question.”
Working with the women’s team has been a lesson for him too. “I’m from Peshawar, I’ve coached Afghanistan, so culturally I’m a bit backward than them. They’re from Lahore and Karachi, which are more advanced cities, but they’ve given me a bit of space. I used to be conscious before, but they said there’s no need for that.”
As a player, Kabir featured in two India-Pakistan contests: one of them in Sri Lanka was washed out, the other won by India in Toronto. Back then, the matches were like “war”, he says. But on Sunday (February 18) at the P Sara Oval, he wants the professionalism that has marked recent clashes between the neighbours.
“We cannot forget that this one game makes one a hero. No matter if it’s kabaddi or cricket, whether you win the tournament or not,” he admits, even as he adds: “It should be played as a normal game. That’s the only way you can perform the best. If you bring personal anger to it, if you get desperate for things, you cannot perform your best.”
http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-article/kabir-khan-afghan-dream-to-pakistani-duty/242179
Until a couple of months ago, Kabir Khan, coaching Habib Bank Limited in Pakistan’s domestic set-up and finally giving his family the time they deserved, wouldn’t even have expected to spend February in Sri Lanka. Now as coach of the Pakistan Women’s team participating in the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2017 in Sri Lanka, when he watched his wards take on the hosts in their opening Super Six game at the Nondescripts Cricket Club ground in Colombo, Sanath Jayasuriya, the former Sri Lanka captain and now chief selector, was on a visit to the club. Both men would have gone about their business unaware of the existence of the other in close vicinity – but history has them linked.
Jayasuriya was Kabir’s first ever One-Day International wicket, taken on debut back in 1994, a stone’s throw away at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground next door. It was one of only 21 wickets Kabir would take in a short international career of four Tests and 10 ODIs.
“What a wicket to have!” the former Pakistan left-arm pacer laughs during an interaction with Wisden India. If there were ever regrets that he couldn’t add to that tally and break into a side with the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, those are long gone.
“People say – I was not good enough to judge myself – they say that because Wasim was there, I could not get a chance. My answer is always that I am one of those lucky people who was selected in that team where Wasim and Waqar and Aaqib (Javed) used to play,” he says. “I was a member of the team at that era when the world’s top fast bowlers used to play and I used to play alongside them. No matter I’ve played 10-11 one-dayers and four Test matches, but sharing the dressing room and getting knowledge of bowling from them, the kick we got playing with them, you cannot [replicate] that. If I was playing in this era, I might have played 50 Test matches, 200 one-dayers, but I couldn’t have said that I have played with Waqar and Wasim.”
Given his background, Kabir is keen to bring pace bowling to the women’s side. The role was an unexpected one he took on in January, considering it “national duty”. He is only now getting to know his team, whose strength is spin. “Attacking bowlers who can get wickets and scare batsmen – the batsmen should think twice about hitting them – those sort of girls we should bring in and strengthen that side of our bowling. Our batting is OK, our bowling and fielding needs variety,” he says.
What Kabir can do with the Pakistan Women’s team will be closely watched. After all, he has earned himself a reputation as a coach for the underdogs, guiding Afghanistan’s phenomenal rise through the ranks to World T20 qualification and ODI status.
“If you look at the time I spent in Afghanistan, it looks like a dream. I don’t know what happened there!” he says, his fondness for the boys evident in his stories of good times and bad. “The passion was a lot, the players wanted to perform, but there were no facilities there. But hats off to the boys, they didn’t care about that.”
During a tournament in Argentina, the board didn’t have money to buy match clothing, he remembers. “So all the team went in one playing trousers and one shirt. We used it for training, washed it and wore it to the game the next day. One of the boys lost his shirt, so I had to give him mine. It shows the dedication of the boys. They never felt that there was something wrong.
“They’ve worked hard and now cricket has opened doors for them, so the money is coming in. I get happy when I see them play PSL and in Bangladesh. I hear some of them are being considered for IPL as well. And they’re driving in cars, wearing designer clothes. It gives me a fatherly pleasure.”
That passion to improve is something he sees in his Pakistan girls as well. “I can see a bit of Afghanistan in these girls. Culturally in Asia, girls are treated as ‘special’,” he says, explaining a society that believes girls need ‘protection’. “But they (Pakistan team) want to prove themselves. For a coach, that is encouraging. You need a bunch of players who want to do something and who want to challenge the world and challenge the coach as well.”
When he says he ‘won’t treat his team as girls’, it’s a promise not to handle them with kid gloves and to break the stereotypes of what women in the subcontinent can and can’t do. “They’ve been treated like girls in the past, we’re not doing that anymore. They are sportspersons and you should treat them as sportspersons, facilities-wise and challenges-wise. Gender shouldn’t be a question.”
Working with the women’s team has been a lesson for him too. “I’m from Peshawar, I’ve coached Afghanistan, so culturally I’m a bit backward than them. They’re from Lahore and Karachi, which are more advanced cities, but they’ve given me a bit of space. I used to be conscious before, but they said there’s no need for that.”
As a player, Kabir featured in two India-Pakistan contests: one of them in Sri Lanka was washed out, the other won by India in Toronto. Back then, the matches were like “war”, he says. But on Sunday (February 18) at the P Sara Oval, he wants the professionalism that has marked recent clashes between the neighbours.
“We cannot forget that this one game makes one a hero. No matter if it’s kabaddi or cricket, whether you win the tournament or not,” he admits, even as he adds: “It should be played as a normal game. That’s the only way you can perform the best. If you bring personal anger to it, if you get desperate for things, you cannot perform your best.”
http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-article/kabir-khan-afghan-dream-to-pakistani-duty/242179
