Lucknow: In Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha district, many cricketing dreams died a premature death. Except one. And that one success story is now on the verge of helping India bring its third World Cup. But Mohammad Shami’s Sahaspur-Alinagar village won’t be sleeping anymore regardless of how the day ends.
Shami was lucky his ‘maniac’ father didn’t give up on his son’s dreams when others around him resigned their children’s fate to the lack of sporting facilities in Amroha.
“He [Tousif Ali] sent him to Kolkata after Shami was rejected in Uttar Pradesh. Villagers [here] seldom get that kind of support from parents because there are no facilities nearby. They would call him a maniac but he persisted,” a 33-year-old friend of Shami from a neighbouring village tells ThePrint, wishing not to be named.
But Shami’s breakthrough performance in the 2023 World Cup has pushed a sleeping Amroha into action. And leading from the front is the district administration, which now wants to ensure that cricketing talents like Shami don’t have to go through what the star Indian pacer did.
“From the age of 14, Shami would travel 25 kilometres every day to reach the stadium in Moradabad. I wouldn’t say I found him exceptional in the first meeting but I realised he worked very hard. If others devoted two-three hours on the field, he would devote five hours. What others learn in one or two years, he learnt in six months,” said coach Badruddin Siddiqui, under whom Shami practiced throughout his teenage years.
Two days after Shami’s record seven-wicket haul against New Zealand helped India reach the ICC World Cup final, a team from the Amroha district administration visited Sahaspur-Alinagar village to identify land for a stadium.
“We inspected the site on Friday and realised that there is adequate land for a gramin stadium and an open gymnasium. We have identified 1.09 hectares of land in the village, which has been denoted as banjar bhoomi (unproductive land),” said Ashwani Kumar Mishra, Amroha’s chief development officer. The administration had reacted to a proposal from the gram panchayat sent two weeks ago for building a stadium.
“The government has planned to build gramin stadiums in every block in 20 districts that do not have any stadium in rural areas and this [in Shami’s village] can be one of them,” Mishra added.
A ‘fuel’ for the ‘future Shamis’
Eighteen-year-old Mukhtar Ashraf dreams of playing for the Indian team as a batter, but he is inspired by Shami who everyone knew “will make it big one day”.
“I was only seven years old when I first heard about Shami bhai. We would hear about how he is emerging as a cricket all-rounder from our region,” said Ashraf, a budding cricketer from Mansoorpur Mafi village in Sambhal district. Ashraf is a regular attendee at the Springfields Cricket Academy ground within the premises of a private school in Moradabad where Shami’s coach Siddiqui has been training young talents for the past couple of years.
Ashraf is among 15 young talents from Sambhal who travel to Sahaspur-Alinagar village every time Shami comes on a visit. They seek tips from the cricketing icon at a ground within the premises of the pacer’s farmhouse.
“He has trained extremely hard for the tournament. He was at home until 25 September and watching him play would put everyone in awe. His story and watching him play on television gave me an ambition. I too want to make it big in the game one day but as a batsman,” Ashraf said.
Shami’s ‘story’ is a fuel for many youth in Uttar Pradesh. The cricketer would take a mini bus or rely on lifts from passers-by to reach the stadium in Moradabad.
But for the late Tousif Ali, the absence of a fully-furnished cricket stadium, which cut short the dreams of many youth, wasn’t a barrier.
“His father would cheer for him. He would leave his work to watch his son play cricket. Ali himself was a fast bowler, but he could never fulfil his dream of becoming a cricketer. He fulfilled his own dream through Shami,” said Sarfuddin, Shami’s childhood friend.
For years, Shami played gully cricket in Chaudharpur, Sahaspur-Alinagar, Budhanpur and Deeppur villages, becoming a regular at Sonakpur stadium—one of the two government-run stadiums in Moradabad. The second one is within the Railway stadium cricket academy.
“If anyone has to be given credit for Shami’s success, it is his father Tousif Ali. After that, it is his coach Badruddin Siddiqui because they sent him to West Bengal after he was rejected in the under-19 trials in Kanpur in 2006,” Sarfuddin said.
Now dreams can come true
A stadium in Sahaspur-Alinagar won’t just be a game-changer for aspiring cricketers from Amroha and neighbouring districts but it will also fulfil one of Shami’s dreams.
Amroha’s only government-run stadium, whose foundation was laid by cricketer Chetan Chauhan in January 2018, ran into trouble in July 2021 when a 50-metre stretch of its main wall collapsed due to heavy monsoon showers, triggering a magisterial probe and an FIR against the contractor in-charge.
“Shami always wanted to have such a facility near home. He has prepared four pitches within his farmhouse and plans to build a sports facility. He asked me to bring the youth training under me to his farmhouse but I told him that nowadays they want things near to them. Not everyone is a Shami who would travel 25 km every day,” the coach said.
Shami is helping young talents in whatever little ways he can, meeting them at his farmhouse whenever he is in town.
“Shami bhai’s rise has ignited passion among many youths from villages near mine. Whenever he is in Amroha, he prepares a schedule for 40-50 aspirants and calls them at his farmhouse every day. He shares all the tricks of the game with us and also visits us at Siddiqui sir’s academy,” says AShraf.
A mini stadium-like facility in Sahaspur-Alinagar, laced with a world-class training ground, a pitch, and a gymnasium, would be immensely beneficial for those who made it to the Moradabad zone-level in the under-19 trials in UP last year along with those interested in other sports.
“The gramin stadium will come up along the lines of a mini stadium. It may cost about Rs 5 crore,” the CDO said when asked about how the facility will be developed. “It will have a multi-purpose hall and an equipment store room, office room, public toilet, sewage facility, electrification, running track, and open gym,” the CDO added.
Aspiring cricketers and athletes, though, hope it will be at par with a “mini stadium”.
“A stadium will be a big achievement for not only Amroha but also our mandal (division). For decades, there wasn’t any government stadium in Amroha and aspiring cricketers have been frequenting academies in private colleges. I am very happy that our division will get a stadium,” said coach Badruddin.
It could turn things around for youth from Amroha, Moradabad, Sambhal, and Rampur, and help them realise their cricketing dreams.
“Ever since Shami bhai started shining in international cricket, young people have started enrolling themselves in private academies. A mini-stadium will benefit those who can’t afford private academies,” said Ashraf.
(Edited by Prashant)