A real life story, revealed frame by frame

Iqbal Abdulla’s tale reads much like a film and he intends to make his dreams come true

He is not merely a namesake of Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal, protagonist of the director’s film with the same name. Unlike Kukunoor’s character, Mumbai’s left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla is not deaf and mute, but shares more than a passing resemblance with the on-screen Iqbal. Scratch the surface and similarities become stark — reel and real merge into one. As on celluloid, so in life, both are threaded by their undivided passion for cricket, their dream to don the blue uniform. Their rise from village to villa. And their struggle to shorten the stretch from their goal, step by step. Mile by mile.

“When I saw the trailers of the film, I decided that I have to see it as it was also called Iqbal. And after I did, I felt it’s my film, as if they were narrating my story,” said Iqbal Abdulla, after his training session at the West Zone under-19 at Motera.

Both, to pursue their dream, had to wage a quiet war against their respective fathers, secretly slipping out of home to the playing arena. If in the film the protagonist’s father was a farmer, real life Iqbal’s father, Niyaz Ahmed, owned a provision shop, both devoid of clout or cash. The role of sister on the silver screen was played by a brother in reality, helping the promising sibling in his secret mission. “I had to be in the shop from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. But my brother (Abdulla Mustafa) would stay in the shop so that I could go and play, without even my father having an inkling about it. I didn’t have any playing gear but my brother toiled hard to buy the necessary items required for playing cricket,” said 18-year-old Iqbal Abdulla, who hails from a village, Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, about 70 km from Banaras.

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“Mujhe lagta tha ki woh khelke awara ban jayega. Main bolta tha ki padhai karni chahiye taki bara admi ban sake. Hame paise ka bhi kaami thi, ab bhi hain. Lekin abhi Iqbal thora thora bhejta hain paisa. Abhi to uska shuruat hain (I used to feel he would be spoilt by playing. I would think he should study to become a respectable man. We used to have financial crunch. We still have to an extent, but now Iqbal sends some money from time to time. This is just his beginning),” said Niyaz Ahmed, 57.

But the real hurdle came in Iqbal Abdulla’s way when he was spotted by his coach Naushad Khan and asked him to move with him to Mumbai (in the film the role of coach was played by Naseeruddin Shah). The problem was regarding who would take the onus to persuade the father. Like Naseeruddin Shah in the film, Naushad Khan took the responsibility.

“I was against the idea. Naushadji came to me once and I told him no. But he didn’t lose patience and came again and told me that Iqbal has a great talent and that he can go all the way. All he needs is support. Those words melted me,” recalled Ahmed, a father of four sons and four daughters.

“First my father was protesting, but when I was leaving he said go with Allah’s name and you will succeed in your mission,” said Iqbal Abdulla, the sixth child of the family. And now, Ahmed’s quiet anger has given way to pride. “He is my son. I have never seen Iqbal play. But now I want to see my boy play live from the stadium,” said Ahmed.