Smiling Younis turns doubters into admirers
Cometh the hour, cometh the Khan
Younis Khan was born in Mardan, a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly Northwest Frontier Province) region of Pakistan. He spent his early years there until he moved to the southern port city of Karachi to pursue a career in cricket.
In his interviews, Younis fondly recalls his time as a young cricketer. Carrying his kit bag, he would often commute to practice by sitting on the rooftop of public buses. He would sit comfortably with his bag, enjoy the weather, and munch on the samosas he would buy from a roadside vendor.
There are Youtube videos of him playing tape-ball cricket on the streets of Karachi with young kids. Many of them line up to bowl at him. Most end up bowling wides, but he sees one in his zone and smashes it straight, high, and long. The kids watch in awe.
He recently opened a photo studio in Karachi. It is, of course, a business, but he says the aim is to support his extended family members, many of whom now run the venture. When Younis is in town, he often spends a few hours there, chatting with customers and even visitors who have stopped by to get a glimpse of the star.
There aren’t too many modern-day cricketers as grounded and humble as Younis is. When you watch his interviews, you can’t help but admire his down-to-earth nature. At the beginning of the series, both Pakistan and England had spoken of how crucial Younis would be to the outcome of this series. It took him a while, but he proved them right with a classy and magnificent hundred.
I don’t really want to write extensively about that brilliant innings, because we all saw it. But this entry is more about the admiration and respect I have developed for the way he conducts himself in a world where he could so easily live the life of a celebrity and distance himself from the common man. It is that old-school, gentlemanly character of Younis that is most appealing to me.
He is one of the best batsmen in the subcontinent at the moment, but he doesn’t seem to have the reputation or garner the attention of a Sangakkara or Laxman. It’s probably not what he wants either. He spends most of his time on tour with the younger members of the squad so he can pass on some valuable knowledge before he hangs his boots. In a cricket culture where seniors often develop insecurities when youth threatens to replace them, Younis’s selfless approach is an invaluable asset.
His success on the pitch can be attributed to his mental strength. A batsman of his caliber should not have to make as many comebacks as he did. When he plays for Pakistan, he gives all he has. However, but when he has been away from the action, mainly due to non-cricketing reasons, he hasn’t looked flustered or worried. When he was indefinitely banned by the PCB in 2010, his brother asked him what he would do now; he said “no worries. I’ll play domestic cricket and get to go fishing more often!”
As a person, Younis Khan can be trusted with many things. You can trust him to play a fighting innings, and you can also trust that he will leave cricket when he knows his time is up, with pride and dignity intact, and without any fuss or drama. I’ll miss him not just for his cricket, but for the lovable character that he is. For now, though, let’s hope he continues playing such special innings for the two or three more years he is expected to serve Pakistan.
