New Delhi: Pakistani cricketer Fawad Alam just scored his fifth Test century in 22 innings, becoming Asia’s fastest player to ever do so, going past the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Vijay Hazare, Sourav Ganguly, and Cheteshwar Pujara. But Pakistanis don’t know whether to praise Alam or bash the nation’s cricket board.
So they did both. Across South Asia (and even Zimbabwe), people erupted into equal parts praise for the 35-year-old left-handed batsman and criticism of the Pakistan Cricket Board, which denied him a chance to play with the national team for over a decade.
Everytime I see Fawad alam score runs when team is in crisis, I wonder what if he had started his career earlier???#PAKvWI pic.twitter.com/LjBnNrJmlD
— I stan Fawad✨❤ (@CricketGirl7) August 20, 2021
All 5 centuries in diffrent countries#FawadAlam
— ٰImran Siddique (@imransiddique89) August 22, 2021
Cricket fans all over the world celebrate every time Fawad Alam scores runs . His story serves as an inspiration that one should not give up when the going gets tough #PAKvWI #WIvPAK #Cricket#FawadAlam . pic.twitter.com/whOjxOxSPj
— Arnav Singh (@Arnavv43) August 22, 2021
In a particularly funny meme, a screengrab from an interview of former Pakistan captain and cricket coach Javed Miandad shows his hand stretched out in a “five,” which conveniently celebrates Alam’s five centuries. In reality, though, Miandad was cursing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir.
The picture depicts:
1. Number of Fawad Alam’s test centuries
2. Number of teams Fawad Alam scored centuries against
3. Number of countries Fawad Alam has scored a century in
4. A message for those who kept him out for 10 years pic.twitter.com/QMu93rl5da
— PSL Memes (@PSLMemesWalay) August 22, 2021
Another shows WWE wrestlers ready to pound the PCB after Alam’s stellar performance.
*Fawad Alam performs*
Everyone to PCB: pic.twitter.com/NWbi9FYcaS
— Mirza Lal Baig (@mirzalalbaig) August 22, 2021
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Sympathy among cricket lovers
Fawad Alam’s performance, while driving up Pakistan’s scorecard in the second Test against West Indies, after his team was three wickets down with just two runs on the board, has left people seeking answers. Who is responsible for keeping out a gem like him from cricket for the best part of his career?
Cricket newsmakers and op-ed writers have a clear answer.
ESPN’s Umar Farooq wrote in January this year that none of Pakistan’s chief selectors between 2009-2020 deemed Alam fit for the national team “despite his stellar domestic performances, season after season.”
“During this 11-year hiatus from international cricket, Fawad made 26 first-class centuries and 33 half-centuries, amassing 7,965 runs at 56.48,” Farooq adds.
Karachi-based cricket aficionado Kumail Zaidi wrote in Dawn in 2019, “No explanation exists as to why the PCB is hell bent on wasting someone who has been the country’s most successful domestic batsman by a long mile,” except that his batting lacks “elegance”.
“Pakistan cricket is still operating on classic principles where stylish failures have more of a chance than successful grinders,” Zaidi wrote.
An article in the ICC forum says of Alam’s former glory, “Only 23 years old when he first broke into the side, Alam was marked greatness when he made a second innings Test century on debut in 2009 against Sri Lanka. He would play three Tests that year but had to wait until August 2020 for his fourth.”
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‘Don’t blame anyone’
Fawad Alam has maintained that he “never blamed anyone” for his long hiatus from international cricket.
“I have always been saying that fate had this for me. That if it was in my destiny, then nobody could have taken it away from me,” he has been quoted as saying.
For many, Alam’s batsmanship is the stuff of dreams. He calls himself a “cricketer who dreams to play for his country. Man who believes in dreams. Father who wants to leave this planet a better place.” If his Twitter bio is anything to go by, he wouldn’t want people to feel any different.
With inputs from Raghav Bikhchandani.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)