Cricket, means of salvation for the Ansari family
Sport can change life for the better. Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Zeeshan Ansari can vouch for it. Born to a family in Lucknow with limited means, the legbreak googly bowler solely lifted the family comprising 19 members from poverty trap to give them a punching chance at life.
It all started with Zeeshan playing on the streets with other kids at Chaudhary Tola, Aliganj more than a decade ago. Zeeshan’s father, Mohammed Naeem, along with his brothers — Mohammed Gayas and Mohammed Chand — had minimal exposure to education. Like their father Noor Mohammed, they became tailors.
“We all started accompanying our father to our shop named ‘New Noor Mohammed Ladies Tailor’ shop at IT Chauraha from a very young age,” father Naeem told this daily. All three brothers have been living together since the beginning and the family now has 12 children, three couples and their grandmother.
The shop was frequented by athletes as they used to gather at the place in their leisure time. “I used to see them and think they have a good life. They have a government job which has given them social security so I thought why can’t my children become athletes. Zeeshan was playing on the streets then, so I requested Kanhaiya Lal, a national level footballer, a regular visitor to our shop, to find a coach for my son. He helped us in getting Zeeshan admitted to his first academy,” added the father.
Kanhaiya, who works with the Indian Postal Department and is now secretary of the Lucknow Football Association, remembered the day when he took then 12-year-old Zeeshan to coach Abhay Singh. “I took him to coach Abhay Singh who was coaching at Chowk Stadium. The academy was around 8 km from his home and Zeeshan used to board a tempo traveller to reach the place. He trained there for almost one-and-a-half-years but the distance was too much for him to commute everyday. I talked to coach Ajay Verma, who was at the Lucknow Development Authority Cricket Coaching Centre. That centre was closer to Zeeshan’s home,” said Kanhaiya.
Zeeshan first trained with Verma and then coach Gopal Singh came in and played a big role in him playing school level cricket. “He used to fox batters with his leg spin and coach Singh knew he could do better in school cricket competitions. So he started sending him for such competitions where he succeeded. It all started from there,” said the father.