Mohammed Shami Ahmed. Remember The Name
WV Raman, who pushed for the fast bowler's inclusion in Bengal's Ranji Trophy team, looks back at what has been a fine journey
“You must be referring to Mohammed Shami, not Shami Ahmed.”
There were the words of a coach when a reporter called him to find out if reports about the emergence of a promising new talent were indeed true.
Back in the day, before he made his Ranji Trophy debut for Bengal, and perhaps for a short time after, Shami, whose full name is Mohammed Shami Ahmed, was being referred to as Shami Ahmed in sections of the media.
Having moved from Sahaspur in Uttar Pradesh to the bright lights of Kolkata as a teenager, Shami was in for a rude shock. Where he came from, there were no real cricket facilities, and here spread across the maidans were grounds till the eye could see and turf pitches aplenty.
What would have been more difficult to adjust to was the bustle of Kolkata, the restaurants of Park Street, the sheer volume of business being transacted.
When Shami first arrived in the city he was so financially disadvantaged, he would sometimes have to sleep in the tents of maalis on cricket grounds.
Shami’s situation was so dire that the payment he occasionally got for turning out as a guest player for a club — Rs 500 — was a princely sum and would keep him going for a time.
Why, even when he was knocking on the doors for Ranji Trophy selection, his inclusion was hardly done deal.
For one, he was an outsider. For another, some incumbents had been around a while and dead set on keeping their places.
It was here that Bengal’s coach in 2010, WV Raman, put his foot down.
Raman, the former India Test cricketer who has also coached Tamil Nadu, been a part of the National Cricket Academy set up and more recently been in the news for coaching the Indian women’s team, did all he could to ensure that Shami’s Ranji debut was not delayed too much.
Raman explains why he was in such a hurry to get the young man into the thick of things.
“The first thing that impressed me was the way he went about things. If you’re talking about the technical side of things he almost had all the elements that go into fast bowling. From your run-up, acceleration, alignment, there are various technical components or protocols that are in play if you want to be a fast bowler,” Raman recalled in a chat soon after Shami’s Centurion heroics.
“The other thing was the way he could make the ball fizz off the pitch. Not only the pace, but the lateral movement he could get. This is something special. Normally you see a lot of bowlers not doing enough in terms of completing their followthrough to get the ball to fizz because they are focussing on swing. They end up just putting the ball there rather than finishing strong. If you made 10 guys bowled and watched them, Shami was streets ahead in this aspect, first up.”
He certainly did get the ball to fizz off the pitch in Centurion.
Ask Aiden Markram, who got the sort of delivery that no right-hand batsman could have kept out. The ball angled in forced the batsman to play the line and then moved away just enough to hit the top of off stump. This was fast bowling perfection.
But, while Shami is now a master of his craft, he would not have been close to this when Raman first saw him. There must have been something else the coach had seen in the young man?
“In terms of attitude, there were never any doubts. To cut a long story short, I’ve seen him bowl flat out, in the last session of the last day, with a 60-over-old ball, while he was running a temperature of 102. This was in his debut game. You didn’t need anything further to tell you what kind of attitude that boy had.”
It was only after the match that tests showed that Shami did not have a garden variety viral fever, but rather dengue, an illness that makes it difficult for normal people to even get out of bed.
Raman explains how he tried to speed up the process of getting Shami into the mainstream.
“Before Shami made his Ranji debut, I was pushing hard for him to play for Bengal,” says Raman. “To that end, I even went to the extent of saying that from the day you make him play Ranji Trophy, within 18 months he will play for the country. And that it happened to a T, so I did not end up with egg on my face.”
There were those who questioned both Shami’s physicality and his work ethic when it came to fitness, but Raman never had any doubts.
“He was a strong boy. That’s one of the reasons why he could bowl long spells and this is something he enjoyed doing. If I were to tell him to bowl for half an hour and the next day go with the trainer and have a workout, that would not be appealing to him,” says Raman. “Instead, if I gave him a ball and told him to have a bowl, he won’t give the ball back to me, or say that he has bowled enough, at least till an hour is done. That is his way. Not that it’s a template that everyone needs to follow just because Shami has gone on to be successful in international cricket.”
On most days Shami would bowl for close to two hours, with no let-up in intensity. This was as serious a workout as anyone could put in, and, what’s more, for Shami it ensured he was bowling fit, even if he did not have a six-pack or guns for biceps.
Shami, who is now in his eighth year of international crickets and boasts 200 wickets, has consistently dug deep within himself to keep the fire going. He could have just chosen the easier path, as so many have, but instead, he has pushed himself to keep going.
“You also need to have the ability to sustain focus, have the determination to carry on, putting in the work year after year. Let’s face it, it’s not a very appealing prospect to be a fast bowler in India. The conditions are not really in your favour,” says Raman. "Of course, when Shami started things were far different from the times of the likes of Kapil Dev. But still, it’s so easy to go easy and say: “bahut ho gaya abhi.” Shami has been the beneficiary of receiving good money from the IPL. It would be easy for him to go soft and say enough is enough.
No matter what it is, you have to continue to do your work and get the job done, irrespective of what is available to you or what is not, in terms of money or coaching help or fitness help.”
Shami has never been a glamour boy.
An incredible statistic is that despite six five-wicket hauls and several performances that have been the driving force behind India winning a Test, Shami has never once been awarded Player of the Match in his 55 outings.
And off the field, things have not been easy either. From his domestic situation to being trolled by Indian fans when he had a bad day — and this was clearly because he was a Muslim player, not because he had not bowled well —Shami has had to endure much.
But Raman gets closer to the truth on why Shami was not appreciated enough within the cricket community.
“One of the reasons was that he did not go out of his way to demonstrate that he was really willing to work hard. Again, as I told you earlier, he preferred bowling rather than running four kilometres or spending two hours in the gym. That was not how he thought he could best keep fit. He felt that was what he needed to do. Whether that went down well with others is highly debatable. A lot of people might have had questions about it, there may have been a lot of raised eyebrows about the fact that he did not appear to be training hard enough,” says Raman.
“The very fact that he has played for as long as he has, and how he has played, despite all the challenges that he has had to overcome, not only in cricket but also off the field, it’s a testimony to Shami’s dedication and the fact that things can be achieved with a different method.”
And now an aside. When Shami succeeded at Centurion, the obvious thing to do for a reporter was to talk to a fast bowler, to try and analyse just what had gone well.
But, instinctively my mind went to Raman.
Not least because he played a vital role in getting Shami his first big break in the first place, but also because Raman always has an intelligent and incisive take on anything related to cricket.
To put it bluntly, he cuts out the bullshit and gets to the heart of the matter. He is generous with his wisdom, his expertise and his knowledge, but he does not suffer fools gladly.
Having known him professionally for 23 years, it was natural for me to reach out to him, just as I had when India were in South Africa last, in 2018. On that occasion, I wanted to speak to him about his hundred in Centurion, the first by an Indian against South Africa in One-Day Internationals. That experience was like trying to get blood from a stone because Raman does not enjoy talking about himself or his playing days gone by. Yet, he humoured me.
That said, the first time I met Raman, was probably the most memorable, and sticks in my head to this day, even though he does not have a clear recollection of it.
I was young, perhaps 12, and got on my bicycle one Sunday morning in Madras (it was still called by its proper name back then) and went across two streets in Adyar to ring the bell of the India cricketer who lived in my neighbourhood.
“What will you do with my autograph?” he asked, and I had no good answer. “Wait,” he said, and went back in his home, leaving a child wondering if this man was going to be so mean as to deny an autograph.
Raman emerged with the autograph book signed, and also a bat. “Take this. Go play.”
That’s Raman for you.
But back to Shami.
To put it in the words of former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop: Mohammed Shami, remember the name. From the time Raman corrected me, the first time, I have got the name right. And now, everyone else does too.