Asia Cup diary: Strike of the ‘silent assasin’

By K.R. Nayar

Dubai. Fazalhaq Farooqi, who destroyed the Sri Lankan batting with a spell of 3 for 11, exploited his familiarity with the conditions in the UAE to earn success. Farooqi plays for Delhi Bulls in the Abu Dhabi T10 tournament and has often produced match winning spells for them. His Delhi Bulls colleagues call him ‘The Silent Assassin.’ Dwayne Bravo who captains Delhi Bulls considers him as the ‘Man with the Golden Arm’.

This story was published in The Telegraph, India  

From being a net bowler for Kings XI Punjab in 2020 and for Chennai Super Kings in 2021 during the Indian Premier League, he has progressed rapidly. After he was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2022 Indian Premier League, he was also signed up by Colombo Stars for the postponed Lanka Premier League 2022. 

When Delhi Bulls hailed Fazalhaq Farooqi during the 2021 Abu Dhabi T10

In fact, Farooqi had made his T20 International debut against Zimbabwe in Abu Dhabi in 2021.

When Indian opener Srikkanth turned bowler

The 1988 Asia Cup was also sponsored by a cigarette company like the 1984 edition by Rothmans and the 1986 edition by John Player Gold Leaf. It was called the Wills Asia Cup and held in Bangladesh. India emerged champions beating Sri Lanka by six wickets mainly due to a surprise performance from India’s opening batsman Krishnamachari Srikkanth in the role of a bowler taking three wickets for 12 runs.

Ranjith Madhurasinghe

Speaking to The Telegraph, Sri Lanka’s off spinner Ranjith Madhurasinghe who had played in that final recalled the incident: “We (Sri Lanka) were on top before the final. In the final, three of our batsman, Aravinda De Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga and Athula Samarasekara, got run out. If not, it would have been a different game. On top of the run outs, we lost three quick wickets to Srikkanth who surprised us as a bowler. Ranjit, who was also a victim of Srikkanth, had taken the wicket of Mohinder Amarnath, but his team lost the final. 

Questions from the floor journalists 

Pre-match press conferences at the ICC Academy are always packed. This time, television cameramen decided to have a close shoot of the players by positioning themselves in the front during these sessions. As a result, journalists had to look out for seats that would not obstruct their view.

A crowded pre-match press conference for Rohit Sharma 

Many of them decided to sit on the floor, right in front of the cricketer who addressed the media. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma had to repeatedly answer queries from those seated on the floor. In short, like in the cinema halls earlier, there were floor seaters, front seaters and back seaters. Those seated at the back could see the player only on the cameras but could hear him speak live. 

Catching practice for journalists with water bottles 

Though the press conference room is air-conditioned, coming in from the hot weather outside made everyone at the conference thirsty. So when chilled water bottles arrived, many rushed to get them. Some of those seated, concerned they might lose their seat if they got up, requested those close to the bottles to pass a few. Soon water bottles were flying all around the room and it looked like journalists were indulging in catching practice with the water bottles!