Haris Rauf, a Rawalpindi boy.
His is a charming story. Haris was a legend on Pakistan’s popular tape-ball circuit — cricket’s street version played with a tennis ball wrapped in electric tape. For a price, he could be hired by teams entering those thousands of big money flood-light tournaments played across Pakistan round the year. Ramzan is when the stakes go higher. Haris had his own sponsor too.
The story goes that Haris, on a lark, decided to accompany his friend for the Rawalpindi to Gujranwala road trip to be at the Qalandars trials. After the close-to four-hour drive, they reached the venue to find the stadium’s main gates shut. With close to 20,000 aspirants already registering, the Qalandars talent scouts, headed by former Pakistan pacer Aaqib Javed, didn’t want more.
Haris and his friend weren’t going back home. They broke open a back door and joined the queue. There is a long video on Youtube in which Haris is narrating his trial story: “During lunch time, they gave everybody chhole chawal; me and my friend didn’t have them. I told him you can’t bowl fast after chhole, it bloats your stomach. I bowled 92 mph and was picked by Aaqib bhai.” It takes more than just steely resolve for a Pindi boy to say no to chhole.
The Qalandars’ website says they have screened 1,13,000 — mostly tape-ball bowlers — in search of pacers with raw pace. The tape-ball circuit is Pakistan’s unorganised sector that supports the organic growth of the hot ‘pace jocks’. Quetta owner Nadeem says that on the tape-ball circuit, you are nothing if you can’t bowl fast. “Every street, every mohalla, there is tape-ball cricket. Us game mein aapki pehchan hi fast bowling hai,” he says. Bowling with the soft tennis ball strengthens your shoulders, makes you think of new ways to dismiss batsmen, forces you to be street-smart.
