Chandigarh: When Kings XI Punjab picked him up for Rs 20 lakh in the auction, all-rounder Manzoor Dar became only the second Kashmiri cricketer after Parvez Rasool to make it to the Indian Premier League (IPL). This also ends his long innings as a night watchman.
The 24-year-old told TOI “IPL selection was a dream come true”. “But the journey has just begun,” he said. “I want to use IPL as a platform to break into the Indian team.” Son of a labourer and eldest of four brothers and four sisters, Dar has worked as a woodcutter and a security guard to feed the family.
“I started earning at 8,” recalls Dar. “To send all the siblings to school was my duty as the eldest child. The IPL contract, I hope, will end our hardship.” The Class-XII dropout from Suganpora village in Sumbal area of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district is popular there for his athleticism. “In front of my house, there is a ground where no one but I used to play,” he said. “People called me ‘awaara’ (vagabond) then. But when I returned to my village after the auction, I found 100-odd children playing cricket at the place. I couldn’t control my emotions.”
Dhoni fan
In February 2017, Dar debuted for Jammu and Kashmir in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and it wasn’t long before his big-hitting prowess made him ‘Mr 100’ of the side. “I was a (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni fan in school,” Dar said. “I always wanted to hit big sixes like him.”
Juggling the night job of a guard with playing the next morning wasn’t easy but it was the only way he could keep playing. In this tough period from 2008 to 2012, he made his name in club cricket and played as many matches as possible to earn maximum. “I did not even have shoes or cricket gear when I played my first club game,” he recalled.
Long trial
It was not until 2011 that he started taking cricket as a serious career option. “That was the first time I participated in trials for the state team,” he said. “My debut had to wait another six years.” Dar has turned out in nine T20 and four List-A matches since his maiden appearance for the state in January last year.
Built to raid
In cricketing circles, they call him “Pandav”, a nickname he earned in Class VII. Asked for its history, he says: “I was a zonal kabaddi match and my team needed five points. Sent in to make the raid, I dragged three opposition players to my half. Since then the name has stuck and the entire valley knows me as ‘Pandav’, Kashmiri for a very strong man.”
The 6-foot-2-inch middle-order batsman and part-time off spinner is enjoying the biggest phase of his cricketing career and looking forward to sharing the dressing room with the swashbuckling Chris Gayle, audacious Yuvraj Singh, and brute force David Miller. “It is going to be a great learning opportunity. If I get a chance to play, my goal will be to lead my team to the victory,” said the finisher.
A new door
Rs 20 lakh may be small amount for a modern-day cricketer but, for Dar, it is the beginning of a better life, a hope of completing the house he has been building for three years. “It still doesn’t have doors and windows,” he says. “Inside, there’s still an ailing mother waiting for treatment.”
Courtesy TOI (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/night-watchmans-big-test-in-ipl-t20/articleshow/63586375.cms)