Why Rishi Kapoor was a big fan of Pakistani cricketer Bari
dubai — The heartbreaking news of Indian cinema losing two of its finest actors on successive days is akin to seeing the two best batsmen of your team surrender to a deadly fast bowler on a cricketing battlefield.
Remember the 1999 Eden Gardens Test when a certain Shoaib Akhtar introduced himself to international cricket by rattling the stumps of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar with back-to-back 90mph yorkers, silencing 90,000 vociferous Indians?
A day after Irrfan Khan had lost his battle with cancer, the cinema lovers woke up to another tragic news on Thursday as Rishi Kapoor raised the white flag after a twoyear battle with leukemia.
His heart may have stopped beating, but Rishi will always hold a special place in a million hearts
melted by his nuanced acting and good looks in 1970s.
Like the vast majority of Indians, Rishi was a cricket fan too. And his admiration for a Pakistani wicketkeeper once stumped Qamar Ahmed, the former Pakistani first-class cricketer who went on to work for the BBC as a cricket correspondent.
“I was in India to cover the 1979 India-Pakistan cricket series when Muhammed Ali, the legendary Pakistani actor, asked me if I would accompany him to Raj Kapoor’s house in Bombay,” Ahmed remembered.
“Ali was invited to a dinner party at Raj Kapoor’s house during the Bombay Test. I was reluctant at first, but Ali told me, ‘Don’t worry. They don’t behave like film stars at home. You won’t feel uncomfortable’.
“So I went there and saw people like Dilip Kumar. That’s when Rishi came up to me and introduced himself. When I told him I was from Pakistan, there was a big smile on his face and said, ‘Oh, I am a big fan of one of your cricketers’.
“Who? Imran (Khan)?” I asked him.
“No,” he said.
“Then I thought he must be a fan of Javed Miandad or Zaheer Abbas. After all, Imran, Javed and Zaheer were three most famous Pakistani cricketers then,” said Ahmed, the former left-arm spinner who dismissed the three famous brothers of Pakistan cricket - Hanif Mohammad, Mushtaq Mohammad and Sadiq Mohammad - in domestic matches.
But Rishi said he was a fan of Wasim Bari, the wicketkeeper in that team. “I was very surprised because Wasim was a very good wicketkeeper, but he wasn’t a star.
“But Rishi said he admired Wasim for his hairstyle. And that Wasim looked like a film star. I will never forget the smile on Rishi’s face when I got Wasim to speak to him over phone. He was so happy that he invited me to his marriage.
“I was touched by his gesture, but couldn’t attend his wedding -which took place a couple of weeks after I had met him -- because I had to cover the Kanpur Test match,” said Ahmed, Pakistan’s most respected cricket writer who has covered 450 Test matches, 739 onedayers and 9 World Cups.
Rishi said he admired Wasim for his hairstyle. And that Wasim looked like a film star Qamar Ahmed,
Former Pakistan 1st class cricketer