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.”
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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.