“Maunh pe ko chadhe [it rises up the batsman’s face],” says a young Vinay Rai as he gleefully explains the threat the delivery of his hero poses to the best in the business; his hero, of course, is local — nay, international — icon Mohammed Shami. Hailing from a Dalit family, Vinay was among several youngsters from Sahaspur, and nearby villages, who had turned up on Saturday to play cricket on the ground that the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to turn into a mini stadium of around 10,000 square metres as a tribute to Mr. Shami’s exceptional performance in the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2023 that will reach its acme tonight.
Hailing from a Turk family, Mr. Shami, a practising Muslim, has emerged as a glue and an inspiration in the village that is hardly 70 kilometres from Madanpur village in Hapur where Qasim Qureshi was killed in June 2018 by a mob following alleged rumours of cow slaughter.
In Sahaspur Alinagar, a predominantly Muslim village, youngsters hesitate when asked to be clicked with cows they tend. They shift the conversation to buffaloes. They want to forget the way Mr. Shami was trolled with communal slurs after India lost to Pakistan in the 2021 T-20 World Cup. But as young Mohammed Zeeshan said they feared the hate could return any day their hero lost his magical touch. “We were worried when he dropped an easy catch in the semi-final but his seven-wicket haul quickly shifted the narrative.”
