It was like the arrival of the new heir to the throne. “Gate kholo, Ishant bhaiya aa gaye (open the gates, Ishant has come),” screamed one of the security guards as soon as he spotted the Indian seamer outside his old school.They were waiting patiently — for over an hour — for the arrival of Ganga International School’s very own, and international cricket’s newest, pace sensation. But nobody complained at the school in Hiran Kudna, north Delhi, sniffing distance from another place, Najafgarh, made famous by Virender Sehwag. The welcome was tumultuous. Even before he managed to push his tall frame inside the gate, the 19-year-old was surrounded by students of all age groups. He had to spend 15 minutes signing autographs while his teachers, old school pals and coach Shravan Kumar waited with proud smiles on their faces.Though the six-foot-four-inch pacer had proved a handful for Australian captain Ricky Ponting right though the series, on Wednesday he was all at sea.The principal tried to stop her young students from crowding him, but her efforts went in vain. And after the felicitation ceremony, even her room was flooded with fans. It all reached a crescendo when one student, frantically searching for a piece of paper to get Ishant’s autograph, tore a part of an examination question-paper for the purpose. The ‘crime’ will probably go unpunished.“This was the first time that there was no stopping the kids. Despite being in my own room, I felt like an outsider,” principal Charu Kapoor said. The school gave the pacer a memento, and students performed a dance to Chak de! The one thing everyone wanted to know was when Ishant was going to get a haircut. What better place to be asked that than his old school?“I have no plans to get them cut as of now,” Ishant said with a smile. “But what I do with them in the future, I can’t say now,” he hastily added.Ishant also defended his lean frame, refusing to heed Australian coach John Buchanan’s advice that he should “build muscles” so that his wiry frame could sustain pressures of international cricket. “I don’t think I need to build strong muscles. I feel I am completely fit,” Sharma said. As could have been expected, nobody argued.
