This Pakistani cricketer is celebrating Navratra, participating in Garba; This Pakistani cricketer is performing Mahashtami puja in Pakistan — I bet you will click these headlines if you don’t already know who this cricketer is. He has alone gained more social media attention in India than the whole Pakistani cricket team in the ongoing World Cup. And he is loving it. “Ram Ram Sareya na :)”, it’s Danish Kaneria, whose spell on X is just not ending.
Kaneria is that 12th man Pakistanis just don’t want on their side, especially when the team is in India and performing poorly. For Indians, he is ‘Pakistani Hindu in distress’; for Pakistanis, he is Vibhishan, fast becoming the top choice for their flagship ‘Go To India’ programme. The pace at which Kaneria is tweeting is so not reflective of his very decent economy of 3.07 during his playing days. No visa troubles or flight discounts for Kaneria, he has arrived in India here big and how. Without even stepping on Indian soil.
Kaneria, only the second Hindu to have played for the Pakistani national side, is now playing for India. At least that’s how some Indians would like to see. And their cross-border love affair pales in comparison to the Sachin-Seema saga, the international couple who now might be cursing the former cricketer for stealing the limelight. Kaneria and Indians are indulging in cute talk; no mortar shells, please. There is dua salam…subah shaam, and “Ram Ram Kaneria bhai” is being met with “love you brother”.
Kaneria, the fourth-highest wicket taker in Tests for Pakistan after Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan, is playing on a Hindu pitch. And boy, bowling from Karachi-end, the former leg-spinner is generating a hell lot of turn in Modi’s India. He has the attention of a BJP politician and the gall to attack an Indian (Muslim) journalist expressing her views, inviting her for the ‘Come to Pakistan’ programme. But he pitched this one wrong. He can’t bowl all six as ‘Hindu’ deliveries. “Put your house in order first”— said the BJP leader who picked Kaneria’s length right. The lengths some Pakistanis can go to divide Indians, Hindu or not!
But going by the backlash he received from Indians for standing up for the Indian journalist, the BJP politician, in his supporters’ view, should have left Kaneria’s as it turned out to be a flipper from the Pakistani.
What timing though. Only cricket can teach you this skill. The former Pakistani leg-spinner’s Hindu pride has awakened in just the right season — with the cricket mahayagya on and India immersed in Hindu festivities. Durga Puja, Dussehra….Danish.
He seems truly retired now and dedicated full time to his social media handles. Little did Prashant Bhushan know that while he was taking a dig at Kangana Ranaut for not being able to hold a bow and an arrow properly to kill Ravan, someone from across the border was watching him. “Making jokes is very easy! Atleast Kangana did something good for her country in reel life, and you are not doing anything good in real life,” shot Kaneria.
But Kaneria knows his boundaries. He knows how much is too much. That explains some of his tweets that are filled with love for his country: “I was born in Pakistan, played for Pakistan and proud to be a Pakistani. Some cheap people discriminated against me, but I can’t blame all for this. I can’t abuse my country.”
To many, Kaneria’s tweets are very much like his bowling. Maybe, understand the art of spin bowling to decipher his messages. But one thing is clear. Unlike in cricket, where his sole target was opposition’s batter, the former leggie is now pitching lengths that can hit multiple targets and draw their attention — from both sides of the border.
For now he has enough material to write his book someday.
😃
— Danish Kaneria (@DanishKaneria61) October 24, 2023