Even a few days ago, Asaduzzaman Sadid had no idea about Sachin Tendulkar. He is only six years old and a die-hard fan of Shakib Al Hasan. When Shakib got dismissed off the first ball he faced in the IPL final this Friday, Sadid started to cry!
Tendulkar, the most prolific batsman the game has seen, was one of the few right-naders from around the world who was able to dominate Shane Warne, the Australian legend widely regarded cricket’s greatest exponent of the art of leg spin. So when Sachin ends up being impressed by a young leggie, you better pay attention.
Sadid is one of hundreds of thousands of other boys of Bangladesh who are madly in love with cricket, and their only dream is to become a national team hero so that they can wear the Red and Green jersey. It was not enough for Sadid to make it to the newspaper headline.
But he did because THE Sachin Tendulkar posted a video of Sadid turning the ball square – even the wrong ‘un! – on Twitter. And thus, in a blink of an eye, Sadid became an international sensation for a day, and then some.
“We noticed Sadid’s love for cricket when he was only two or three,” Sirajul Islam Shuvo, uncle of Sadid, told UNB on Saturday. “His love for cricket increased earlier this year when Shakib won a player of the match award. Sadid asked me why Shakib is awarded player of the match when someone else scored the most runs. I told him that Shakib is an allrounder and he picked up more wickets in the match than anyone else. Right after that, Sadid started to bowl. He only was interested in batting before that.”
Sadid started to bowl all day. The prospect of becoming an allrounder encouraged him immensely to try his hand in bowling, as his uncle described it.
“I usually remain busy working till 11pm every day, and Sadid waits for me so that he gets some time with me and bowls a few overs at night! His only dream now is to become a cricketer, become an allrounder like Shakib. After Sachin shared his video on October 14, he is also in love with the greatest cricketer in history, though, he has never seen Sachin’s batting,” Shuvo added.
As seen in the video that Sachin shared on his Twitter profile, Sadid bowled eight deliveries to his friends who were not able to touch even a single delivery! Three of them were bowled being confused whether the delivery was a googly or a regular leg-break.
While talking to a media outlet, Bangladesh’s former captain Shahriar Nafees said he is astonished watching Sadid bowls like a pro.
“Nafees bhai was so happy to see Sadid bowls like this,” said Shuvu. “Nafees bhai saw Sadid’s bowling from one of his friends whom I gave a video. He told me to nurture Sadid well. Especially, he liked Sadid’s wrist position while delivering a googly. He said that it’s tough for the leg-spinners to bowl leg-spin and googly from the same wrist position. In that sense, Sadid has a special ability that can make him a great leg-spinner.”
Sadid’s mother Jummatun Nesa has also set a dream to make him a cricketer, according to Shuvo. “We are now planning to admit Sadid at BKSP whenever he comes to the age of getting admission there. At the same time, we might consider to enrol him with Shakib’s academy. But it will take some more time as he is only six now. Time will say what awaits him,” Shuvo added.
Source: United News of Bangladesh