Tankeeb Akhtar is a failed cricketer who couldn’t let go of the game. When he saw talent in his young nephew Sameer Rizvi, whose match-winning 70 not out got Delhi Capitals off to a winning start in the IPL on Wednesday, he wanted the boy to play for India. Sameer’s father Haseen wanted him to stop. “Mat bigaad usey, khud ki tarah mat bana, cricket se kya mila tujhe.” Don’t spoil him. Don’t make him like you. What did cricket ever give you? For years, Tankeeb was not welcome in his sister’s house. He kept coming to the ground instead — with his nephew. “If I think, maybe there would be barely 14 days in the past 14 years when Mamu wasn’t with me at the ground,” Sameer would tell this newspaper. The brother-in-law relented when Sameer, at sixteen, made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh. Haseen had suffered a brain haemorrhage days before it. When Chennai Super Kings paid Rs 8.40 crore for the uncapped boy from Meerut, Tankeeb says his brother-in-law held his hand and wept. “Itna paisa is umar mein, thoda dar lag raha hai mujhe.” So much money at this age. A little frightening. “As a coach my role is over. My job now is to keep his feet on the ground.” *** The feet went first to Chennai. Rizvi’s first IPL camp. A simulation match. After the game, Dhoni walked up to him. Not the other way around. “He said everyone is nervous in their first season. But what matters is what pressure you’re taking. Game ka pressure lena hai. Situation ka pressure lena hai. Audience ka ya apne price tag ka — ye pressure nahi lena,” Rizvi recalled to News24Sports. View this post on Instagram At 8.40 crore, the most famous finisher in cricket was telling a twenty-year-old to forget the number. When Rizvi’s shuffle was causing his knee to bend too much, Dhoni showed him the correction himself. *** At Delhi Capitals, KL Rahul sat Rizvi down for long conversations. The advice was: practice harder than you play, because then matches become easy. In T20 cricket, you need shots in every direction. Rizvi practiced. He added the sweep. The switch hit. Shots for the middle overs when spinners operate. “Mujhe spinners ko maarna kaafi pasand hai.” The patience he would show in Lucknow wasn’t passivity. It was preparation.Story continues below this ad Rizvi prays before every match. “Mein namaz padh ke hi match khelne jaata hoon. Mind bilkul shaant rehta hai,” he told News24Sports. He compares it to meditation — the mind empties, good thoughts arrive, the noise goes quiet. During both IPL seasons, Ramzan fell mid-tournament. He kept the rozas on practice days. On match days the franchise let him manage it his way. Sameer Rizvi played a match-winning knock for Delhi vs Lucknow. (PHOTO: CREIMAS FOR IPL) On a memorable evening in Lucknow, Delhi Capitals were chasing 142 against Lucknow Super Giants. Shami got Rahul caught on the first ball. Nitish Rana fell at slip. Nissanka and Axar went in the same over. Twenty-six for four in the fifth over. The man who had spent hours teaching Rizvi those shots was already in the pavilion. Rizvi walked in at number four. Namaz presumably done. Mind quiet. View this post on Instagram For thirteen balls, there were no boundaries. The wicket had movement. Fast bowlers on top. He spoke to Tristan Stubbs at the other end. Overs left. No need to rush. Then a loose delivery arrived. He put it away. “When you’re quiet for the first 10-12 balls, that one boundary really helps you settle,” he said after the match. The jail-break moment had arrived with a ramp shot for six over third man off a short pacy ball from Anrich Nortje. *** Seventy off 47 balls and an unbroken 119-run stand with Stubbs arrived as the chase finished with a six at the start of the eighteenth over. It was built, not blazed. Rizvi absorbed Shami. He waited for the spinners. When they came, he was ready — the shots Rahul had told him to practice, the calm Dhoni had told him to find, the intent Tankeeb had spent fourteen years building. After the match, he was honest. “Consistency is something I want to work on. This was my first innings of the season.” Story continues below this ad His dream is older than his career. “Mera sapna toh yahi hai ki India khelna hai. Lekin do chaar match nahi. Kaafi lambe samay tak India khelna hai (My dream is to play for India. Not 2-4 matches. For a long time),” he told News24Sports. A long time. Like Virat Kohli? “Haan, keh sakte hain (Yes, you can say that).” Four people made last night possible. A mamu who was banned from a house for believing in a boy. A coach in Lucknow who gave that boy a debut at sixteen. A captain in Chennai who told him to forget his price tag. A senior player in Delhi who said practice every shot. Tankeeb would have watched. Fourteen years at the ground, the boy proved him right.
Sameer Rizvi’s coming-of-age knock: The four people who built his innings before he faced a ball
