How often have we heard of that fairytale? A young man from nowhere, wanting
to become successful in the big bad world out there, having all the talent in
the world, getting fame and that initial bit of success only then to getting
derailed in the tracks by forces that at times to the human eye seem utterly
evil! Sounds almost cynical and negative this entire thing but well, to most
people the success story of this year's IPL, Kamran Khan may seem like
one such case. The whole of Azamgarh and indeed the whole of India, would be
watching this case very carefully now as the left-arm medium pacer has now been
officially 'reported' by umpires Rudi Koertzen and Gary Baxter
for having a 'suspect action'.
The IPL had thrown in promising young players last year as well and as far
as this year's edition is concerned, few would have problems in choosing this
emerging star from the Rajasthan Royals as the find so far. Touted by
his skipper Shane Warne as one of his trump cards much before the tournament
actually began, Khan lived up to his captain's faith and captured the people's
imagination. His high-point came undoubtedly in the match against the KKR wherein
he was initially asked to bowl the crucial final over and subsequent to that
was then summoned to bowl the 'Super Over' as well. Scenes wherein Warne walks
upto him with his bit of instructions and that of the bowler having that child-like
smile as if to say he's so enjoying being part of this world were becoming commonplace.
Yet another young man from smalltown India had emerged on the scene and it seemed
that India's pace strength that's anyway looking in great shape had got another
servant; an 18 year old who looked good to serve for long. Until…
Truth be told, this is not the end of the world for him. Bowlers have been
reported earlier only to come back strong. Muttiah Muralitharan and then India's
own Harbhajan Singh have shown great mental strength and resolve to emerge victorious
in their battles versus the system. Its now upto the young lad to keep his chin
up and do whatever it takes, even if it means tweaking his action [assuming
his action indeed is deemed 'illegal'] a bit that'll enable him to get back
on his feet. The good thing for him is that he's got the full support of his
team, more so his captain who, as stated earlier, has gone public stating how
great a find he's been for the Royals. The already struggling team will do better
than to lose such an important weapon from their arsenal. More importantly,
it'll be a huge loss to Indian cricket if the find of IPL-II so far is lost
in the wilderness. The onus in many ways lies on the BCCI to provide
the teenager as much support as it can to ensure that he gets all the 'right
advice' so that a genuinely raw talent from the country doesn't turn out to
be a 'one tournament wonder'!
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